The Ecuadorean arrest warrant for Colombia’s former Defense Minister
Juan Manuel Santos is “a threat to Colombians,” President Alvaro Uribe
said Wednesday.
An Ecuadorean judge Monday ordered the arrest of the former Defense Minister for his alleged responsibility for the death of an Ecuadorean citizen in the March 1, 2008bombing of a FARC camp just across the Ecuadorean border.
According to Uribe, Ecuador has no jurisduction to act against the former Minister, adding that the cross-border attack was a State matter and not a personal action by Santos.
“The issue is a threat to Colombians. It is a threat to deny Colombians the right to regain security,” Uribe said after a meeting on military airbase Catam, near Bogota.
Even though Colombia previously was condemned by the Organization of American States that considered the attack a violation of Ecuadorean soveirgnty, Uribe insisted that he would not allow “that they put freedom on trial.”
“We can not allow that political warfare that promotes terrorism inside and outside Colombia continues to create impunity for the terrorists,” the President said. According to Uribe, the attack that killed the FARC’s number two, Raul Reyes was done “in the mark of the global war on terror.”
Uribe anounced he will form a judicial team to defend a team of high level attorneys to “anyone who needs judicial assistance on an international level.”