Ecuador leader says to quit if rebel links proved

[L. Coyote]

Source: Reuters

May 17, 2008

QUITO, May 17 (Reuters) - Ecuador President Rafael Correa on Saturday said he would quit if there is proof he had any links with Colombian guerrillas, raising the stakes in a spat with neighbor Colombia, which accuses him of harboring rebels.

Accusations that Correa and his ally Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez helped Colombian guerrillas stem from data found in the laptops of a slain rebel leader authenticated by the international police agency Interpol earlier this week. The disclosure has raised regional tensions.

"If I had the most minimal relation with the FARC as candidate or as president I will resign as president," Correa said in his weekly radio address. "We have never received illegal (campaign) contributions."

The popular ex-college professor said he handed over proof of his innocence to the Organization of American States amid accusations he also received money contributions from rebels .........

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN17464443

[Peace Patriot]

1. Interpol did NOT "authenticate" the CONTENT of these laptops.

They merely determined ownership. In fact, they hired non-Spanish speakers as analysts, specifically to AVOID any analysis--or even understanding--of the CONTENTS of the laptops. Interpol had NOTHING TO SAY about the CONTENTS--the files, the documents, the emails. Nothing!

Furthermore, they found that 48,055 files had been "accessed, created, modified or deleted" by the Colombian government BEFORE they turned the laptops over to Inerpol.

I am just appalled at the misleading headlines and statements, and outright lies, that the corporate press has been promulgating about this.

---

"Using their forensic tools, they (the Interpol experts) found a total of 48,055 files for which the timestamps indicated that they had either been created, accessed, modified or deleted as a result of the direct access to the eight seized exhibits by Colombian authorities between the time of their seizure on 1 March 2008 and 3 March 2008 at 11:45 a.m."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42391

---

The part I find most interesting are the DELETIONS. Uribe (Bush's tool in Colombia) is former Medellin Cartel (now Bush Cartel). Over fifty of his political cohorts are under investigation, indicted or in jail for death squad and drug trafficking crimes. Uribe himself is under investigation. He recently extradited several of his rightwing paramilitary accusers to the U.S.--that is, to Bush's Dept. of Justice--for prosecution on drug charges. The suspicion is that this was to shut them up. What might his enemy--Raul Reyes, the FARC hostage negotiator whom they blew away just inside Ecuador's border (with 500 lb. U.S. "smart bombs")--have known about Uribe's criminal activities, that he might have left evidence of, in his laptops? What did the Colombian military DELETE? (Also, of course, what did they create or modify?)

I think we're looking at the Iraq/Niger nuke forgery deja vu all over again. At issue are the $5.5 BILLION in U.S. military aid to Colombia, through Bushite fingers, for the murderous, corrupt, failed "war on drugs," and, of course, the biggest oil reserves in the western hemisphere, in Ecuador and Venezuela, which has leaders that believe in using the oil profits to benefit the poor. And guess who became interested in events in South America shortly after he resigned from Oil War I?

"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html

And we thought he--and his 'Official of Special Plans'--were retired!

[ronnie624]

6. U.S. media are really pounding that lie home.

Any reasonably informed individual can see the obvious collusion between the corporate media owners and the U.S. foreign policy establishment.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Ecuador's Correa says he'll resign if proved his government has ties to FARC

Ecuador's Correa says he'll resign if proved his government has ties to FARC

© AP
2008-05-17 21:14:51 -


LIMA, Peru (AP) - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa says he'll resign if links between his government and Colombia's largest rebel group are proved.

Correa is urging the Organization of American States to investigate Colombian accusations that his country let the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia operate on its soil.

Interpol this week vouched for the integrity of files on a computer that Colombian officials seized during a raid on a rebel camp in Ecuador. Some of those files describe contacts with Ecuadorean officials.

Correa cut off diplomatic relations with Colombia after the March 1 raid.
Correa told a news conference in the Peruvian capital Saturday that relations with Colombia are in a «horrible state.

http://www.pr-inside.com/ecuador-s-correa-says-he-ll-resign-if-r594506.htm

[Zorro]

3. Unnecessary brinksmanship

IMHO it looks like Correa senses a crisis of confidence in his leadership.

This declaration may not be a good decision, since he has little control over the situation. It smacks of Nixon's "I am not a crook" declaration.

If Correa did not know of the FARC camp, then he's perceived as incompetent. If he did know about it -- and did nothing about it -- he's perceived as corrupt.

Guess he's choosing to go with the first narrative. I'm curious to hear what he handed over as "proof of his innocence".

I suspect the most likely scenario is that local officials may very well have been aware of the FARC base, and were getting paid hush money to leave them alone.

[ronnie624]

7. If the Colombian government lacks control over 30% of its territory,

it doesn't make much sense to expect Correa to eliminate FARC activity in Ecuador.

You're grasping in desperation again.

[Zorro]

8. So are you asserting Correa knew about the FARC camp

and did nothing about it?

[Judi Lynn]

9. Stop putting words in peoples' mouths, get a hobby. n/t

[Zorro]

10. Asking a question

is putting words in people's mouths?

Want to answer the question? You've certainly got a big mouth.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Ecuadorian president to step down if links to rebels are proved

Ecuadorian president to step down if links to rebels are proved


May 17, 2008, 16:22 GMT

Lima - Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said Saturday in Lima that he is willing to step down from power if it is proved that his government has backed the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Correa made this comment amid allegations by Colombian authorities that FARC - who hold hostage former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and over 700 others - may have given funds to Correa's presidential campaign and that the government in Quito may have granted protection to the rebels.

'If they prove that, I put my position in the hands of the Ecuadorian people,' Correa said.
(snip)

Correa - who on Friday attended the European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean summit alongside Uribe and scores of other leaders - said he asked the Organization of American States to carry out a probe to establish whether the allegations against him are true.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/americas/news/article_1405976.php/Ecuadorian_president_to_step_down_if_links_to_rebels_are_proved

[Judi Lynn]

5. Correa denies Chávez is a troublemaker; raids on Uribe

Caracas, Friday May 16 , 2008
Correa denies Chávez is a troublemaker; raids on Uribe

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa Friday rejected claims that his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez is a troublemaker, and rather accused Colombian ruler Álvaro Uribe of "slandering" through a report Interpol disclosed in connection with late Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces leader Raúl Reyes' laptops, thus deteriorating relations among Latin American countries.

"We have to look beyond the forms we may like or not. Yet I do believe that some presidents in the region are more difficult than Hugo Chávez, not only in form but also in content," said Correa before attending the opening session of the Fifth Latin America and Caribbean-European Union Summit in Lima, AFP reported.

According to Correa "a smear campaign in under way with a goal to justify the shelling (by the Colombian Army) last March 1 (against a FARC camp in Ecuador)."

http://english.eluniversal.com/2008/05/16/en_int_art_correa-denies-chavez_16A1583843.shtml
(oppostion newspaper)