Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

ECUADOR: Colombia Once Again in the Middle of Election Campaign

Kintto Lucas

QUITO, Nov 1 2006 (IPS) - Colombian President Álvaro Uribe’s claim that Raúl Reyes, a spokesman for Colombia’s FARC guerrillas, is living in hiding in Ecuador has heated up the campaign for the second round of presidential elections in this country and raised questions about the relations between Quito, Bogotá and Washington.

Following Uribe’s Oct. 20 statement, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Francisco Carrión demanded explanations from Colombian Ambassador Carlos Holguín, who replied that the president’s assertion was based on reports from Colombian military intelligence.

The ambassador’s response further complicated relations between the two countries, because it pointed to meddling by Colombian intelligence services in Ecuadorian territory.

Carrión, in turn, replied that Ecuador did not accept Uribe’s claim because there is no evidence that Reyes – head of international affairs for the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) – is in Ecuador.

“Ecuador controls its territory up to the border with Colombia, not one centimetre beyond that, and it does so in a permanent and effective manner, something that I unfortunately cannot say occurs on the Colombian side,” said Carrión.

The idea that the Colombian government carries out espionage in Ecuador is something that Quito does not even want to consider, “because it would be a very serious thing,” the minister added.

Although several spokespersons for the Colombian government promised to provide proof that Reyes is in Ecuador, they have not done so.

But General Germán Galvis, commander of Colombia’s sixth army division, which fights the FARC in southern Colombia, said in an interview Tuesday with Colombia’s Caracol Radio station that “it’s no news to anyone that Reyes is there.”

“We have precise information on Reyes’ presence on the other side of the border,” said the general.

The Colombian army is applying the necessary “pressure” in areas along the border with Ecuador and Peru, and expects “the decisive support of the other armies,” Galvis stated.

“The support we have from the Ecuadorian army has been efficient, but the problem is that the guerrillas take advantage of jungle areas along the border,” he added.

Analysts say the references to Reyes made just a few weeks before the Nov. 26 runoff were aimed at influencing voters in favour of banana magnate Álvaro Noboa, the candidate backed by Colombia and the United States.

In the first round of voting on Oct. 15, the right-wing Noboa came in first with 26.8 percent of the vote. He will face off this month with leftist candidate Rafael Correa, who garnered 22.8 percent.

According to the latest survey by the local polling firm Informe Confidencial, Noboa’s ratings stand at 47 percent, compared to Correa’s 34 percent.

Noboa has labeled his rival a “communist,” a friend of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, and a “defender of the FARC.”

Correa has stated that he does not consider the FARC “terrorists”, as the insurgent group has been classified by the United States and the European Union. He said that by formally declaring the rebels as terrorists, Ecuador would lose its neutrality in the conflict.

“Noboa wants to involve us in Plan Colombia (a U.S.-financed counterinsurgency and antidrug strategy) and in the conflict in our sister country. But we refuse to get involved in a conflict that is not our own,” Correa has told the press.

The presidential candidate of the Alianza País points out that the United Nations has not even declared the FARC a terrorist group.

Before the first round of voting, Noboa had already made it clear that he was a potential ally of President Uribe and the U.S. administration of George W. Bush in the fight against the Colombian insurgents.

He also said that if he won the elections, he would break off ties with Venezuela and Cuba, although lately he has toned things down in an attempt to soften the hard-line image he has projected.

Correa has also tempered his stances. Prior to the Oct. 15 elections, he had quipped that referring to Bush as the “devil,” as Chávez has done, was an insult to the devil, who is smarter than the U.S. president. But last week he requested and obtained a meeting with U.S. Ambassador Linda Jewell, in an effort to modify his image as a radical leftist.

In the context of a highly polarised campaign, the statements from Uribe and spokespersons for the Colombian government can only be interpreted as an attempt to link Ecuador with Reyes, political analyst Paco Velasco told IPS.

“These remarks are aimed at meddling in Ecuadorian politics, because they have come just prior to the elections, when the two candidates are already clearly at odds over the question of involvement in the Colombian conflict, participation in Plan Colombia, and the future of the Manta base,” said Velasco, the director of the La Luna radio station in Quito.

Analyst Alejandro Moreano at the Simón Bolívar Andean University said “there is a clear connection between the Colombian president’s statements on Reyes’ supposed presence in Ecuador and Noboa’s accusations that Correa is a communist.”

Former foreign minister Heinz Moeller, who would possibly hold that post again under Noboa, also criticised Correa for not declaring the FARC terrorists.

However, Moeller himself failed to classify the insurgent group as a terrorist organisation when he headed up the Foreign Ministry, from 2000 to 2002.

In 1999, as chairman of the congressional commission on foreign affairs, Moeller signed the agreement that ceded the air base in the western port city of Manta to the U.S. armed forces, along with then president Jamil Mahuad and then foreign minister Benjamín Ortiz.

The Manta base plays a key role in air reconnaissance, under Plan Colombia.

Speaker of Congress Wilfredo Lucero said that “each of these remarks is an attempt to somehow draw Ecuador into Colombia’s internal problems. That is the policy of the United States and the Colombian government. And the policy that Ecuador should follow is to not interfere in a case that is none of our business.”

Ecuador and Colombia share a 586-km border, which is crossed by many Colombians fleeing the four-decade armed conflict between the armed forces and right-wing paramilitaries on one hand and the leftist rebels on the other.