MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador’s Correa blames former leader Uribe for the bilateral conflict

In March 2008, Colombian elite troops stormed the camp of FARC’s number 2

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa blamed former president Alvaro Uribe for wrecking trust between the two nations by ordering a military attack on Ecuador's soil (in 2008) without requesting authorization from Quito.

“President Uribe preferred asking for forgiveness to asking for permission and that is not how you build trust” Correa said in an interview published on Monday by Colombia’s main daily El Tiempo.

Ecuador broke off diplomatic ties with Uribe's government in March 2008 after the Colombian military stormed a border camp from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) inside Ecuadorian territory, killing more than 20 people, including FARC’s number two.

Correa told El Tiempo that Colombia still had not met conditions set by the Ecuadorian government to resume diplomatic relations.

“They bombed us and we need to know why. The bombs were US-made, intelligent devices never before used in the region” said the Ecuadorian leader who nevertheless participated last Saturday of the oath-taking ceremony for President Juan Manuel Santos.

Correa said Uribe had promised to deliver a report on the incident, but failed to do so.

The Ecuadorian president also said he hoped that President Santos would soon visit Ecuador although he is wanted in Quito by the national prosecution on charges he masterminded the March 2008 raid into Ecuadorian territory.

During the presidential campaign Santos admitted that given the same circumstances (as in March 2008) he would not doubt in giving the same orders.

Correa said he had told Santos that he “can go to Ecuador as often as he wants, and we hope he does so soon, which he can thanks to his immunity as head of state”.

“As soon as the Colombian government has fulfilled the commitments it announced, we will be very pleased to re-establish diplomatic relations” pointed out Correa.

The Ecuadorian president said the new Colombian administration had already delivered information that had been stored on computers belonging to Raul Reyes, the FARC chief who was killed in the 2008 attack.