Ecuador’s National Assembly on Wednesday passed a motion to condemn declarations made during a live television debate by Colombian presidential candidates Juan Manuel Santos and Noemi Sanin, who both said that they would consider authorizing the Colombian army to attack Colombian rebels on Ecuadorean territory.
The motion was passed with 73 votes for and three against the official condemnation. Twenty-six representatives abstained from voting.
The Ecuadorean representatives voted in response to the two Colombian candidates’ statements that they would not necessarily reject the idea of repeating the 2008 cross-border raid by the Colombian army on FARC guerrillas residing in Ecuador – an attack that led Ecuador to freeze diplomatic relations with Colombia.
Santos and Sanin’s claims were declared “attacks on the stability, peace and integration in the region.”
The Ecuadorean assembly appealed to Colombia, via the Organization of American States and the United Nations, to respect international treaties and standards that guarantee the sovereignty of States.
Th results of the vote will be sent to the Ecuadorean government and the Andean parliament.
An Ecuadorean court issued a warrant for Santos’ arrest, for his involvement in the cross-border military operation that killed FARC leader Raul Reyes in March 2008. However, Colombia rejected the charges, stating that it “does not recognize the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Ecuadorean justice to investigate and try former and present Colombian officials.” Santos said that the incident is a matter of state and not personal responsibility.