Ecuador’s foreign minister said that while his government would be glad to receive the hard drive belonging to late FARC leader “Raul Reyes,” which Colombia seized in a 2008 raid, they have doubts about its authenticity, Terra reported Thursday.
“It would delight us greatly if they gave us the information, but we know and are clear that we will not receive it as if it were the Bible,” Patiño explained, in response to statements made Tuesday by Colombian presidential candidates Juan Manuel Santos and Antanas Mockus that as president, they would both provide Ecuador with the information from FARC leader Raul Reyes’ computer.
Patiño said that the information contained on the computer has lost its authenticity because it has been in Colombian custody for too long, but that Ecuador would still appreciate its delivery, which is crucial for the re-establishment of relations between the two Andean nations.
“We would like to know the information, and when [the candidates] want to [deliver it]. This will facilitate the broadening and deepening of relations,” the Ecuadorean chancellor said.
Last week, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa repeated his statement that diplomatic relations with Colombia could not be fixed until he was given information about the contents of the Raul Reyes computers.
“We are waiting for information on the bombardment, on the blessed computers, because after the bombardment, to justify the bombardment, they said that a super computer had miraculously survived which linked us to the FARC. We want the hard drive to see who is involved,” said the Ecuadorean president.
Colombia’s diplomatic relations with Ecuador were severed in 2008, after the Colombian army carried out a raid on a FARC camp on Ecuadorean territory.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe promised in a heads of states’ meeting in Mexico in March that Colombia would provide Ecuador with information seized during the raid. However, Colombia’s Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez has since said that the computers will not be handed over because Colombia’s prosecutor general is using them as evidence.
