Ecuador asks Colombia to send troops to border to contain rebels

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Ecuador asks Colombia to send troops to border to contain rebels
The nation says its neighbor must do more to prevent its civil conflict from spilling over.
By Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 29, 2008

SAN LORENZO, ECUADOR -- With no sign of a thaw in their frozen diplomatic relations, Ecuador this week called on Colombia to increase its military presence along their shared border to check the spillover of rebel groups, drug trafficking and war refugees.

The demand was one of several laid out by officials as they argued that their nation had paid too high a price for its neighbor's decades-long civil conflict and that Colombia must take more responsibility for the encroaching violence.

The two nations seem far from repairing the rift triggered six months ago, when Colombian troops crossed the border to kill a rebel leader holed up in Ecuador. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa deployed troops along the border and two days later cut diplomatic ties.

Despite the intercession of the Organization of American States and the Carter Center and a meeting this month between the two nations' foreign ministers, relations remain icy.

In an interview this week, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvador said her country wanted Colombia to send an unspecified number of additional troops to the 450-mile border accompanied by international observers.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-ecuador29-2008aug29,0,2760707.story

[judasdisney]

1. Alvaro Uribe: Biggest criminal in the Western Hemisphere behind Cheney/Rumsfeld

[Judi Lynn]

2. Ecuador to accept 50,000 Colombian refugees

Ecuador to accept 50,000 Colombian refugees
August 28th, 2008

Ecuador will extend refugee status to 50,000 Colombians until the middle of next year, relieving some of the pressure on the estimated 4 million persons displaced by the country’s 40-year internal war.

The announcement by Ecuadorian’s foreign minister comes just days after the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said it was “increasingly concerned” about the situation of at least 100,000 persons in southeastern Colombia who had been uprooted form their homes by the ongoing conflict between the government, rebel groups and right-wing paramilitaries.

Over the last seven years more than 17,000 Colombians have already been granted refugee status in Ecuador, which receives more refugees than any other Latin American country, Salvador told Spanish press agency EFE.

Colombia’s displaced population, which is second largest in the world after Sudan, rose to 300,000 last year, about 50 percent over the average of previous year, according to Refugees International.

http://colombiareports.com/2008/08/28/ecuador-to-accept-50000-colombian-refugees/

[bemildred]

3. Hey, but Uribe has "90% support", he's really very popular.

:sarcasm:

[Judi Lynn]

4. For sure! But apparently he's not so popular with Jimmy Carter, about whom he lied when he said

Jimmy Carter supports his FTA with _{George W. Bush!}

Peace Patriot took the time to check into it (Uribe's public claim Jimmy Carter backs his FTA was picked up by Colombia's own Semana and touted as the God's truth) after it was posted by a Uribe supporter here. You may find this interesting:

Jimmy Carter did NOT endorse Colombia 'free' trade deal! It's a LIE!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x7380