The Ecuadorean government welcomed the denial of the FARC that
Colombia’s largest rebel group had funded the 2006 election campaign of
President Rafael Correa.
In a press release, the FARC stated the video of ‘Mono Jojoy’ was taken out of context and is a Washington-Bogota attempt to incriminate the Ecuadorean President.
The guerrillas’ denial is “yet another piece of evidence of the permanent cock-and-bull story aimed against” Ecuador, the country’s Security Minister, Miguel Carvajal, told Spanish press agency Efe.
According to the minister, the video “caused damage” to Ecuador and announced the country will “demand that the same media show and spread the news that the video is part of a number of tales of the Colombian government and … that they show the alterations in the video.”
In the video, given to U.S. press agency AP by Colombian authorities, FARC commander ‘Mono Jojoy’ confirms Colombian accusations that the rebels financially funded the 2006 presidential campaign of Correa.
Colombia admitted that the video sent to the media was an edited version, but sent the unedited version to the Organization of American States to investigate the authenticity.
Ecuador cut ties with Colombia in March 2008 after the Colombian Army bombed a FARC camp on Ecuador’s side of the border. Relations between the countries have not been restored since then. Colombia has repeatedly accused Ecuador of aligning with the FARC and Ecuador accuses Colombia of intentionally allowing its violent conflict to spill over to Ecuador.