Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has said on Tuesday, that peace in Colombia would be a “relief” for his country, reported Spanish press agency Efe.
According to Correa, Ecuador currently allocates $120 million annually on monitoring the 435 mile border with Colombia which according to the authorities has long been operated by the FARC, drug-trafficking bands and smugglers.
However if there was no armed conflict in Colombia the sum would be reduced to between $8 and $10 million, said the president of the neighboring country.
Correa offered his “full support and joy” for the peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas which will begin in two weeks in Norway’s capital Oslo.
“Whatever we can do to help we will do. It is great news for the whole of Latin America, the best news of the last few years, maybe for the last few decades,” said the Ecuadorean president.
Last August 30th the Ecuadorian president called on Colombia’s biggest guerrilla group the FARC, to lay down arms and follow the road to democracy, pointing out that the armed struggle has lost all reason for being.