Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said Wednesday that Colombia has not fulfilled its promise to hand over evidence on its 2008 FARC raid, and that diplomatic relations between the countries therefore cannot be fully restored.
“Colombia has not complied [with Ecuador’s request for the information]. It never gave us information on the raid [on FARC leader Raul Reyes’ camp], the videos, not even a copy of the blessed hard disks from the computers … We can’t completely re-establish relations while they haven’t satisfied our concerns about this case,” Correa said.
Uribe promised in a heads of states’ meeting in Mexico last week that Colombia would provide Ecuador with information on the Colombian army’s raid on a FARC camp in Ecuador on March 1, 2008. FARC leader “Raul Reyes” and 26 others, including an Ecuadorean, were killed in the raid, which prompted Ecuador to sever diplomatic ties with Colombia.
Colombia authorities seized Raul Reyes computer in the raid and claim it contains evidence of collaboration between Correa’s government and the FARC.
The meeting between the two heads of states last week was the first since diplomatic relations were cut.
At the Mexico meeting Colombia and Ecuador laid out topics of discussion that their nations need to jointly address, and formed a “Commission on Sensitive Subjects” which will convene to address bones of contention between the two countries.
Both countries accused the other of failing to police the border region, which was plagued by illegal armed groups with links to drug trafficking. Relations between two countries began to improve after talks in September last year.