16 December 2009

Timely News out of Ecuador


In a very recent post, I said that:

Correa...has positioned Ecuador in the camp of far-left Latin American leaders opposed to the United States' presence in the region. It seems likely that Venezuela and Ecuador could probably do more to cut down on the activities of left-wing Colombian rebels and drug gangs using their territory as sanctuary.


Time reports further on the recently released commission report out of Ecudaor:

Several former officials of the Ecuadorian government had ties with Colombia's Marxist guerrillas, a commission named by President Rafael Correa conceded Tuesday...

The 131-page Angostura report provides further evidence that Gustavo Larrea, who has held positions as Interior and Security Minister under Correa, had direct links to the FARC, along with José Ignacio Chauvín, briefly his deputy in the Interior Ministry, and Maria Augusta Calle, a television journalist and currently a legislator for Correa's Alianza Pais political movement. All deny supporting the guerrillas. At the same time, however, the report is certain to come under scrutiny for the way it insulates Correa from blame...

Huerta, however, said that the commission didn't find evidence of FARC donations to Correa's 2006 election campaign. According to Correa's now-estranged brother Fabricio, who managed the campaign, the rebels' offer of a donation was rejected.


While I have no way of judging whether the commission was designed to provide cover to Correa, it seems like a good thing that the government is at least investigating and acknowledging FARC ties amongst some of its officials. These findings seems to vindicate the Colombian raid to some extent...

No comments:

Post a Comment