Colombia’s Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez suspended a planned meeting with his Ecuadorean counterpart Fander Falconi, despite the fact Ecuador’s Supreme Court denied the extradition request for former Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos.
The two countries started a process to re-establish ties that were broken after Colombia attacked a FARC camp on Ecuadorean soil in March 2008. Despite the diplomatic attempts by both governments to improve relations, Ecuadorean prosecutors decided to request the extradition of Santos and Armed Forces commander Freddy Padilla to prosecute them for the same attack.
Ecuador’s National Court of Justice Tuesday denied the extradition request for Santos and is still expected to rule on that of Padilla.
Colombia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday the meeting between Bermudez and Falconi and the gathering of a second bi-national commission, that of Sensitive Issues, is postponed indefinitely.