The U.S. Embassy in Quito denied that Ecuador’s American-run Manta base was used in planning the raid on a FARC camp that led to the death of guerrilla leader ‘Raul Reyes’.
“The Manta base was not involved in any way in the Colombian attack against the [FARC] camp, nor did it provide intelligence,” the embassy stated to El Espectador Friday.
The embassy was responding to a report by the Ecuadorean Commission for Transparency and Truth which found that “the strategic intelligence processed from the Manta military base was fundamental in tracking and tracing Raul Reyes”.
However the embassy admitted it had not yet had “the opportunity of revising the report” but added that it appeared to repeat many accusations made by the Ecuadorean government.
Colombia’s armed forces commander, General Freddy Padilla, late Thursday denied any U.S. involvement in the raid.
At the time of the raid on the FARC camp the Manta base was operated by the U.S. military, who had jurisdiction over narcotics control which they “far exceeded”, according to the report.
Guerrilla leader ‘Raul Reyes’ was killed when the Colombian military bombarded the FARC camp on Ecuadorean soil on March 1, 2008.
Diplomatic relations between Bogota and Caracas were fractured following Colombia’s military incursion, which resulted in the death of 24 others, including an Ecuadorean.
An Ecuadorean court had requested the extradition of former Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos in connection with the bombing raid. The request has since been officially withdrawn.
Diplomatic relations between the neighboring nations were only reinstated in late November with the reopening of embassies in Bogota and Quito.