Colombia's defense minister said on Sunday that an Ecuadorean was killed during Colombia's controversial March 1 raid on a rebel camp across the border in Ecuador.
Ecuador briefly mobilized troops to its border with Colombia in the wake of the attack that killed top Colombian rebel commander Raul Reyes and 25 others. Confirmation of the Ecuadorean death threatened to revive tensions between the Andean neighbors that still have not renewed diplomatic relations.
Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said one of two bodies brought to Colombia after the attack belonged to an Ecuadorean he identified only by the nom de guerre "Lucho."
The Ecuadorean's body was initially identified as that of a Colombian rebel troubadour, alias Julian Conrado, and brought back to the Colombian capital of Bogota with Reyes' body.
PHOTOS
Relatives of a missing Ecuadorean locksmith say they have seen news photos that indicate the body is that of their son. The family of Franklin Aizalia planned to travel to Bogota as soon as yesterday in a bid to confirm the body's identity.
On Saturday, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa threatened to launch a new diplomatic offensive against Colombia if DNA tests confirm that Colombian forces killed an Ecuadorean citizen.
Santos on Sunday urged Ecuadorean authorities not to act rashly.
"To President Correa and Ecuadorean authorities: Be careful with letting yourselves act impetuously on behalf of criminals," the defense minister told reporters while attending an unrelated military funeral. "Take care and corroborate with your own authorities the identities of people."
Santos said Colombian military investigations suggest Lucho was romantically involved with Nubia Calderon, alias Esperanza, who allegedly served as a public ambassador in Ecuador to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The minister called the Colombian raid on the FARC camp a "legitimate act of war."
FORCEFUL
Correa previously said he would urge the Organization of American States (OAS) to "act forcefully" if tests confirm that Colombia killed an Ecuadorean citizen, saying he did not want a precedent set in the region.
Over the weekend, the office of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe issued a statement calling Reyes' camp "a place of terrorists," but vowed to adhere to any decisions of the OAS, which is investigating the cross-border raid.
Tensions over the raid were largely defused at a regional summit in the Dominican Republic days after the attack, but Correa has yet to return his ambassador to Bogota.
Four Mexican university students and a Colombian soldier were among those who died in the raid.
Uribe, a close US ally, says documents seized at the camp from Reyes' computer show that the FARC gave money to Correa's 2006 presidential campaign. He also claims Correa's ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, planned to give the rebels US$300 million.
Correa says he has requested the documents, which he said lack "technical and legal" validity.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to