Could someone explain to me what the situation is with Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela?

Question

I am really interested in knowing what is going on with these three countries because I am half Ecuadorian, and would like to know what is going on as a citizen of the country. Unfortunatly i havent had much time to watch the news, and would like to be informed on everything. please help!

Answer 1

Here is the article Yahoo refers to:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080305/ap_o...

Colombia was absolutely justified in targeting a known terrorist.  Whether or not he was killed just over the Ecuadorean border isn't entirely relevant, since those are jungle areas where it is very easy to pass from one country to another without knowing where the borderline is.

Also, FARC rebels typically, and in a very cowardly manner, typically launch attacks against targets in Colombia and then slip over the border into Venezuela or Ecuador with the knowledge that the Colombian army will not pursue them across the border.  This time, finally, the Colombians did something and pursued a known terrorist and murderer and killed him.

Answer 2

I'm from Ecuador and I'm following the conflict closely.

I'll start with a brief summary of Colombia's actions.

Last week, Colombia bombarded a guerilla camp located in ecuadorian territory a few miles from the border with Colombia, killing all the rebelds (except for three women who are now in custody of ecuadorian authorities), one of them was none other than the number 2 of las FARC .

During this attack, Colombia invaded ecuadorian air space without any authorization from our president, thus violating international law, which means that the entire operation was illegal. That is the reason of the conflict between the two countries right now.

But that is not all, when they finnally told us about what they have done, Uribe said that they were following the rebelds and reacted on self defense, that it was all spontanious; giving them a justification for entering Ecuador. But when a military party, along with some ministers went to the area (everything was photographed and videotaped); it was discovered that the area was actually bombarded and the everything was done while the rebelds were sleeping, prooving that it was all a planned atacked and that Uribe was either misinformed, or that he was lying to our president, a VERY severe diplomatic action.

As a result of the attack, Ecuador sent troops to the border with Colombia and expulsed the colombian embasador in Ecuador and make our embasador leave Colombia.  A few moments later, Chavez declared his support to Ecuador and also sent troops to Venezuela-Colombia's border (Chavez sent his troops AFTER Ecuador the affirmations of some media that we were the one following Chave'z actions is FALSE).

Up until now Ecuador is only demanding not only apologies from Colombia, but also a guarantie that it won't happen again, since this is not the first time that our air space has been invaded by Colombia.

After the attack, Colombia retrieved a computer with all sorts of documentation from the rebelds. That information had a lot of compromising data that directly relates Chavez to las FARC. They state that Chavez has being supporting them with both guns and money, and even was planning to give them uranium. The documents are also said to relate Ecuador's president (or some of his ministers) to Las FARC, but up until now, it has not being revealed which types of relations those are and don't seem to be as strong as the one's Venezuela has since if Correa (E President) had given them the same type of support, the Colombians would have definetly mentioned it on the press conference where they exposed most of the content of the documentation. They said they are going to use this new found evidence to formerly complain to Venezuela and Ecuador in front of the U.N. and the Organization of the American States.

Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, has recently admitted that he had dialogs with Las FARC, but with the sole objective of negotiating humanitarian exchanges; he denied the accusation of giving support to las FARC against the Colombian government. I have to mention that Correa has never openly expresed his support to Las FARC in any way, he has remained neutral in the Colombian Conflict and that unlike Chavez, he never mourned for the killed FARC leader, in fact, before the inspections of the las FARC camp and before discovering that Uribe had given him false information, he supported the actions of Colombia and congratulate that victory, sth he would not have done if Las FARC and him were such good friends.

I'm not a supporter of Correa, in fact I hate the guy for being such a supporter of heavy socialism; but I have to speak objectively. The new documentation has still not revealed his relations with Las FARC, and I think there is a possibility that Colombia does not have much on him other than humanitarian dialogs, but they are still mentioning the possibility for not looking that badly internationally for breaking international law with Ecuador.

Also, if las FARC has entered the country, I blame the current government for it; because we've been holding them back for a LOT of time and if they have indeed penetrated our territory, it was because the president is more bussy dealing with his decreasing popularity, than properly defending the border.

The main issue here is that Colombia violated, bombarded and sent troops into our territory. That's against the International Law, up until now only Colombia and Bush are defending Colombia's actions. The rest of south america and even Europe, are on the side of Ecuador for this transgression. The relations of president Correa with las FARC are another issue which has not still been clarified.

Apologies and respect, that's what Ecuador is demanding right now, not that Colombia killed those rebelds as colombian and other medias want everybody to believe.

It WAS a great hit against las FARC, but that does not justify a violation of the air space and territory. If they have informed us of the location of the camp, we could have sent our troops there and CAPTURE them, instead of going there and kill them all while there were sleeping as it actually happened. If we have caught the number 2 of Las FARC alive, Colombia not only would have avoided this mess, but they could have gained a great oportunity to negotiate the release of not a handfull of hostages, but docens or even hundreds, one of them most definetly Ingrid Betancourt. The hostages are in more danger than ever, and the peace dialogs with Las FARC might have been ruined.

The situation can perfectly be solved with diplomatic measures. A war is not necessary at all, so instead of being talking about which side to support in a war, the U.S. should try to decrease the tensions between Ecuador and Colombia, instead of giving Chavez what he wants: Conflict. If the U.S. would solve this peacefully, they could recover some of the prestige they've lost in the region instead of helping Chavez to corrupt the minds of the people of S.A. with xenophobic and nationalist paranoia.

The sesion of the Organization of the American States did not manage do much. Correa is currently travelling ot other south american countries to gain support from other presidents and help him make the OAS condemn the violation of the territory by Colombia.

Answer 3

I copied this answer form another question:

Colombia has been fighting a civil war with Las Farc for about 40 years. Las Farc started, ostensibly, to better social conditions for the poor. However, over time, and after Pablo Escobar and his ilk were wiped out, they took over the drug trade. Las Farc holds an uncountable number of hostages and uses them for political leverage. Las Farc loves to operate in Colombia and then, like little girls, run to Venezuela or Ecuador to hide where they thought they were safe. Colombia went 1.1 miles inside the Ecuadorian border after taking fire from the rebels that were inside of Ecuador. (Colombia could have called it an act of Agression from Ecuador and declared war) On a siezed laptop, they found that Chavez from Venezuela had given Las Farc 300,000,000 (300 million dollars) Chavez is terrorist who wants to destabilize the region to further his own agenda

Answer 4

Colombia entered Ecuador territory while chasing Farc Commie rebels.  Ecuador complained and Venezuela got excited and decided to flex there pinko commie flabby muscles.