Posted on 10/23/2006 2:03:06 PM PDT by StJacques
Government compiles proof of the presence of the FARC in Ecuador Last Thursday, President Alvaro Uribe denounced [the fact that] the guerrillas Raul Reyes, the alias of Luis Eduard Devia, is hiding in Ecuador, and Ivan Marquez, whose true name is Luciano Marin Arango, is doing so in Venezuela. After the statements, Ecuadoran authorities asked the Colombians for evidence that Reyes, the FARC's principal spokesman, "is hiding himself" in that country, as the President indicated. In statements of various speakers, such as Santos as well as Araujo, they have said that "recent" proof exists of the presence of Reyes in Ecuadoran territory and of that of Marquez in Venezuela. As to the evidence which the head of [the Ministry of] Defense possesses, Foreign Minister Araujo said that "we are going to send it (to Ecuador) very soon by diplomatic routes in the name of the Combifron (Bi-National Frontier Commission) so that they know it first hand." According to Minister Santos, "by intelligence reports" it is known that Reyes is hiding in the rainforests of Ecuador. Last Saturday the Ecuadoran Foreign Minister, Francisco Carrion, summoned the Ambassador of Colombia in Quito, Carlos Holguin, so that he would explain his statements to the press of that country, so that he gave an account of those "intelligence reports of the Colombian army" on the presence of guerrilla leaders in Ecuador. That same day Holguin responded that, "if Ecuador wishes to know this information in detail, the Colombian government will be well-disposed to supply it to them." Foreign Minister Araujo admitted, in a like manner, that since last week she has spoken two times per day with the Ecuadoran Minister of Foregin Relations. With information from the EFE news service.
The Foreign Minister, Maria Consuelo Araujo, and the Minister of Defense, Juan Manuel Santos, say they will have shown in brief that the insurgents are taking refuge in Venezuela and Ecuador
Sunday, 22 October 2006
Bump
Ecuador has always been FARC's safe rear area.
Common FARC guerrillas keep their families on the Ecuadorian side of the border, and frequently visit them there. They take their R&R there, hanging out in the local taverns, they buy their supplies there in the local grocery and hardware stores. The police look the other way; I was told that as long as they don't show their weapons, they prefer not to get involved.
There are occasional shootouts in the bars, however, between Farc guerrillas and anti-Farc paras taking their day off in the same place at the same time.
Ecuadorian special police and military units do patrol, but they have a talent for uncovering guerrilla camps that have already been vacated; their primary interest is in dealing with Ecuadorian guerrilla-wannabes, not the real thing.
FARC guerrillas also invest their money on the Ecuadorian side, sometimes openly in their own names, sometimes through Ecuadorian partners, buying up farms, hotels, bars and so on. Ecuadorians comment that if a FARC guerrilla makes you an offer, you're not really in a position to haggle too much about the price.
Ecuadorian military and customs officers have been caught facilitating weapons and other supply transfers through Ecuadorian seaports to the interior, one Ecuadorian politician was assassinated by Colombian anti-Farc "paras" supposedly for his involvement in weapons trafficking to the guerrillas (as well as his involvement supposedly in recruiting Ecuadorian students into armed militant groups). Ecuadorian intel involvement in his murder might be supposed from the fact that the Colombian shooters were allowed to get away, and the only arrests made (rather quickly) were of local gophers who didn't know much.
Ecuador tries to walk down the middle, they don't want a guerrilla war spilling over the borders, and they don't have the muscle to face FARC even if they wanted to. And if you are well placed and well connected, there is money to be made by looking the other way as FARC supplies flow through Ecuadorian ports.
I'm glad Uribe is finally getting assertive about this with the two regional clown leaders who plague his eastern and southern borders. Both of Chavez and Palacios are idiots and malandros.
;^)
Couldn't resist...
We on our far-flung keyboards have known (or at least had well-founded suspicion based on observations during our travels and business) this for quite some time. How can it be that the media, on their far-flung keyboards, does not?
May we suppose that some left-wing State-Department cookie-pusher also might have a clue?
Pinging everyone
I guess you've seen by now how the WSJ's edition for today says Venezuela is most likely going to back down to that other country's candidacy on the UN Council?
Yeah, I'm about to post on that subject.
Time will tell if Chavez can lose despite his 20 point lead:
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-11-04T221544Z_01_N04460417_RTRUKOC_0_US-VENEZUELA-MARCH.xml&src=rss&rpc=22
Sweet! But excluding alternative political parties from the polling seems like it could pad the opponent's standing vs. incumbent Chavez. Nevertheless, hopefully other polls will show that this one's not rogue...
Please keep up the impressive work. With Ortega's recent victory in Nicaragua, Mexico and El Salvador will be pretty lonely in their region if Chavez wins. Not that that's enough to slow down Mexico's potential progress though (bombs notwithstanding)...
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