Ecuador's president denies backing Colombian rebels

[Judi Lynn]

Source: International Herald Tribune/Associated Press

Ecuador's president denies backing Colombian rebels
The Associated Press
Monday, May 12, 2008

MADRID, Spain: The president of Ecuador on Monday denied Colombian allegations that his country supports leftist rebels fighting to overthrow the Colombian government.

President Rafael Correa said his government is committed to finding a peaceful solution to the decades-old war in neighboring Colombia.

Correa spoke at a news conference in Madrid at the start of a European tour that will also take him to Belgium and France.

Colombian forces raided a Colombian rebel camp inside Ecuador on March 1, killing a senior rebel leader and 24 others. Colombian officials say messages saved in a computer recovered after the raid show Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has tried to arm and finance the Colombian guerrilla group FARC. Colombia also has released documents suggesting ties between the FARC and Ecuador's leftist government.

Correa said Monday that Colombia is waging a campaign of slander by saying his country serves as a safe haven for the FARC.
"Colombia and the government of Colombia know they are lying," Correa said.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/12/europe/EU-GEN-Spain-Ecuador.php

---

Chavez, Morales, Correa. Uribe.

[Bacchus39]

1. that's funny, the base they bombed was in Ecuador

n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. What are you talking about? Care to make sense, for a change? n/t

[Bacchus39]

5. the base they bombed was in Ecuador, hello!!!

I see Correa and Chavez frantically trying to run away and get out in front of the upcoming INTERPOL report.

[fascisthunter]

7. Only Frantic One Here is You

[Arctic Dave]

8. Hello!! Borders are porous.

We have terrorist residing in Florida. Should Cuba bomb Miami?

[judasdisney]

17. Bacchus is defending a Neocon Colombian President ... Hello!!!

[bitchkitty]

23. So because the place (not a base) was in Ecuador,

then Ecuador was complicit? That's some very critical thinking you got going on there, sport!

[Andrushka]

13. "base"?!

:rofl:

Oh, it was a "base" now, was it?

Hyperbole or just plain full of shit: I can't decide.

[Mudoria]

3. Wouldn't be any surprise if

Ecuador was offering safe havens for the FARC thugs.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Yeah, those scary thugs who commit 1/5th or less of the violence in Colombia,

according to all human rights organizations.

Actually, it WOULD be a major surprise. It would be a shock.

Why don't you spend some of your time getting in touch with the facts, like the DU'ers who hope to know what's happening?

[Zorro]

14. When will you

acknowledge and condemn FARC atrocities?

[Zorro]

19. Still waiting

to hear you acknowledge and condemn FARC atrocities.

[EFerrari]

9. Right. Because the Colombian government is so trustworthy

that what they say about democratic governments not blowing Bush is SO credible.

lol

[Judi Lynn]

11. FARC thugs? You mean the ones who chainsaw living people? Oh, wait! That's the paramilitaries!

Murder Training: Colombian Death Squad Used Live Hostages
April 29, 2007 By El Tiempo

El Tiempo's ZSpace Page

El Tiempo, Bogota -- "Proof of courage": that is how the how the paramilitaries would term the training they imparted to their recruits so that they learnt how to carve up people while they were still alive.

Initially, the authorities rejected this version of the farmers who reported the practice... but when the combatants themselves started to admit to it in their testimonies before the prosecutors, the myth became a harsh crime against humanity.

Francisco Enrique Villalba Hernández (alias Cristian Barreto), one of the perpetrators of the massacre at El Aro in Ituango, Antioquia, received this type of training in the same place where he learnt to handle arms and manufacture home-made bombs. Today, a prisoner at La Picota in Bogota, Villalba has described in details during lengthy testimonies how he applied the learning.

"Towards the middle of 1994, I was ordered to a course... in El Tomate, Antioquia, where the training camp was located," he says in his testimony. There, his working day started at 5 in the morning and the instructions were received directly from the top commanders such as 'Double Zero' (Carlos Garcia, since assassinated by another paramilitary group).

Villalba claims that in order to learn how to dismember people they would use farmers they gathered together in the course of taking neighbouring settlements. As he describes it, "they were aged people whom we brought in trucks, alive and bound up". The victims arrived at the ranch in covered trucks. They were lowered from the vehicle with their hands tied and taken to a room. There they were locked up for days in the hope that the training would start.

More:
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/15551

[judasdisney]

16. Why is Bacchus defending a Neocon Colombian President? Uribe's the one with mass graves, not Chavez

Funny how Bacchus didn't learn the lesson taught by the Neocons for the past 8 years:

DOCUMENTS ARE FAKED FOR POLITICAL THEATRE.

Why did it take Uribe 6 weeks to get his new Photoshopped documents together?

Why won't Uribe release these "Laptop Documents" for independent scrutiny?

Why is Bacchus spewing Neocon talking points about Chavez & Correa?

Why is Bacchus defending a Neocon Colombian President?

Is modern-day COINTELPRO so unsubtle here at DU?

[Zorro]

20. It's hard waiting for the Interpol report, isn't it?

I'm sure you're anxiously awaiting the release of that document.

They probably haven't been released it yet because they're busy investigating the leads found in thousands of files.

Oh, and expressing common sense isn't a sign of a conspiracy.

[judasdisney]

22. It's hard acknowledging the Neocon track record of faked documents, isn't it?

I guess the Niger uranium faked documents weren't enough to warrant future skepticism against the SAME NEOCON CLOWNS who are spotlighting this new "recovered laptop" -- Oh, and expressing skepticism against NEOCON CLOWNS who you are defending inexplicably, particularly with their track record, isn't a sign of conspiratorial thinking, except to those who refuse to acknowledge Neocon conspiratorial behavior, amply demonstrated, either because "Zorro" is too scared to admit historical conspiracies exist, or Neocon conspiratorial behavior exists, or perhaps Zorro is actually COINTELPRO (which I'm sure Zorro denies existed also).

[Zorro]

24. BOO!!!!

Nope, not denying COINTELPRO. Not denying some conspiracies have existed.

But I think only conspiracy whackjobs believe Interpol is part of some international conspiracy. You need to seek a mental health professional immediately if that's what you believe.

And if I was participating in some new COINTELPRO action, I would probably be tracing your username right now, doncha think?

[judasdisney]

25. It's hard acknowledging the Neocon track record of faked documents, isn't it?

Zorro the Neocon failed to answer my question.

But Zorro did rely on the old Neocon tactic of questioning his opponent's "mental health." Funny how Zorro and Bacchus always turn up on Latin America threads to post on behalf of the Right Wing position in Latin politics.

[gbscar]

18. As if FARC never tortured or maimed anyone...yeah right

n/t

[killbotfactory]

6. Good luck finding a peaceful solution

Especially since negotiating with the FARC will get you labeled a terrorist supporter, and Colombia/US has no qualms about violating your borders to murder any FARC leader willing to attempt negotiations.

[EFerrari]

10. Bush and Uribe need FARC to keep their money laudering operation going.

The last thing they want is peace.

[Bacchus39]

12. so Chavez is complicit in this conspiracy too then?

n/t

[struggle4progress]

15. If Uribe didn't get what he wanted for Christmas, he'd say Santa was a FARC supporter

[ronnie624]

21. It seems that the writers for the AP

are incapable of simple deductive reasoning these days.

"I do not know if he would have kept his word, but he announced the release of two hostages for March, including Madame Betancourt. France knew it," Correa was quoted as saying. "Unfortunately, contacts with the FARC have been lost since the death of Raul Reyes." He did not elaborate.

Why should Correa need to elaborate? His meaning should be obvious to anyone familiar with recent events.

Then, oddly enough, the author provides his own elaboration two paragraphs later:

Betancourt is a French-Colombian citizen who was campaigning for Colombia's presidency when the FARC kidnapped her six years ago. Sarkozy and his government have campaigned for her release, and French diplomats have said Reyes was their key FARC contact until his death.