AP Newsbreak: Rebel video hounds Ecuador's Correa

AP via SFGate ^ | 7/17/9 | FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press Writer

[SmithL]

BOGOTA, Columbia (AP) --

An hour-long video police found in a computer of an alleged rebel appears to dispel any doubts that Colombia's largest rebel army gave money to the 2006 election campaign of President Rafael Correa of Ecuador.

The video shows the second-ranking commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia reading the deathbed manifesto of founding leader Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda. The manifesto clearly acknowledges FARC contributions to Correa's campaign, but it's still possible that Correa wasn't aware of them.

The video, given to The Associated Press by a government official on condition of anonymity due to political sensitivity, adds weight to evidence found in a half-dozen electronic documents recovered at a rebel camp destroyed in a cross-border raid last year.

Correa has accused Colombia of fabricating the documents, despite an investigation by the global police agency Interpol that determined they were not altered. The video also corroborates a written copy of the same rebel manifesto that turned up on a different rebel computer recovered in October.

Ties between Colombia and neighboring Ecuador are deeply frayed, and the video is sure to complicate relations further. Colombia is outraged that the FARC, a leftist group on the U.S. State Department's terror list, was operating out of Ecuador, allegedly with the support of that country's leftist government.

Ecuador broke diplomatic ties after Colombia crossed into its territory last year to raid the rebel camp. Attempts by the Organization of American States and the Carter Center to mediate the dispute have been stymied.

[Paradox]

Well that should settle all doubt, I expect Obama to ask for the overthrow of the Colombian government...

[marron]

The manifesto clearly acknowledges FARC contributions to Correa's campaign, but it's still possible that Correa wasn't aware of them.

Just like he didn't know FARC's number two was permanently camped in Ecuador and receiving visitors from all over the world.

Correa is a Chavist and a FARC ally. Chavez himself was on FARC's payroll, and then FARC went on Chavez' payroll.

To keep it simple, Chavez is FARC. Chavez represents a FARC takeover of Venezuela. Correa (and Gutierrez before him) are Chavists. Morales in Bolivia is a Chavist ally. Chavez is funding insurgency in Peru both using the tribes and disaffected military. And he is plotting a takeover in Honduras (and El Salvador to boot).

He came within a tiny percentage of putting his man in the presidency of Mexico. This isn't over, this is barely getting started.