Ecuador Joins Venezuela In Sending Troops To Border, Recalling Ambassador
Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa withdrew his government’s ambassador in Bogota, Colombia, and ordered troops to the country’s border following a Colombian raid against leftist rebels inside Ecuador.
In a televised address, Correa called a raid by Colombian national police and air force one day earlier a “massacre” that killed civilians.
The strike at dawn Saturday killed two leading figures in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Marxist movement that has fought a guerrilla war against the country’s government for some 40 years. One of the dead was FARC’s second-in-command, Luis Edgar Devia Silva, known as “Raul Reyes.”
The incident has triggered a crisis among the three countries, as Venezuela President Hugo Chavez also ordered 10 battalions of troops to the Colombian border and the closure of Venezuela’s embassy in Bogota.
Chavez pledged to “support Ecuador in any circumstance,” he said on his weekly talk show, “Alo Presidente,” or “Hello, President.” Watch the implications of the raid.
“We don’t want war, but we will not allow the North American empire — which is the master — and its sub-President [Alvaro] Uribe and the Colombian oligarchy to divide, to weaken us. We will not allow it.”
The three countries are neighbors, with Colombia, a U.S. ally, squeezed between Ecuador, to the southwest, and Venezuela, to the east.
The White House said Sunday it was “monitoring the situation.”
“This is an odd reaction by Venezuela to Colombia’s efforts against the FARC, a terrorist organization that continues to hold Colombians, Americans and others hostage,” spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
FARC has justified hostage-taking as a legitimate military tactic in a long-running and complex civil war that also has involved right-wing paramilitaries, government forces and drug traffickers.
(CNN)
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Another proxy war.
March 2nd, 2008 at 10:39 pmThis time in South or Central America. Nice diversion.
It gives the AQ types a chance to set up shop closer to our back yard amidst all the chaos.
Any ideas on how long venezuelan army would last if they tried anything funny?
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:00 amPretty impressive really, at least Venezuela and Ecuador send troops SOMEWHERE.
Those fucktard looser Mexicans only send their troops to the Arizona/Texas borders to assist the drug and human smugglers invade this country.
Nuke Mexico Now
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:39 amWarning to Hugo:
March 3rd, 2008 at 2:07 pmMy coffee supply better not be interupted.