Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa on Tuesday challenged Colombia’s former President Alvaro Uribe to both sit polygraph tests to answer allegations about ties to the FARC, paramilitaries and drug-trafficking.
The challenge followed Uribe’s claims that Correa had taken a “benign position” with regards to FARC, a claim hotly denied by Correa, who responded by branding Uribe a “liar” and “unbalanced”.
Correa offered to take a polygraph, or lie-detection test, to clarify his involvement with FARC, on the condition that Uribe would do likewise to make clear his own links to paramilitary and drug-traffickers. The challenge was subsequently dismissed by Uribe at an international press conference.
The Ecuadorean leader further alluded to Uribe’s past description of the Colombian Army’s March 2008 bombing of a FARC base in Ecuador as the result of a “hot pursuit” — an attack which was subsequently revealed to have been planned. Ruptured diplomatic relations between Ecuador and Colombia following this attack were restored in late 2009.
Colombia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs last week called on Ecuador to “respect” ex-president Uribe.