Colombia's Uribe 'wants war', says Ecuador's president

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa called his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe a liar who “wants war”, following a raid against guerrillas that set off a diplomatic crisis.

“If this act goes unpunished, the region will be in danger, because the next victim could be Peru, it could be Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, any one of our countries,” Mr Correa said in Peru’s capital, Lima.

Colombian security forces killed more than 20 Colombian guerrillas, including a senior member of the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in a strike on Ecuadorean territory last Saturday.

To protest at what he called a “violation of our sovereignty”, Mr Correa cut diplomatic ties with its US-backed Andean neighbour and sent troops to Ecuador’s Colombian border.

“We will try to solve this difference through peaceful, diplomatic means, although we are willing to go to the ultimate consequences,” he said in Peru - his first stop on a six-nation tour seeking support from other countries that border Colombia.

He arrived early today in Brasilia, Brazil’s capital, and was expected to meet President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva later.

Mr Silva said yesterday that Colombia had been wrong to send commandos into Ecuador, but insisted the region’s leaders would find a way to prevent war.

“I’m convinced we’re going to find a calm and peaceful exit from this,” he said in the Brazilian city of Campinas.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, a Correa ally, meanwhile expelled Colombia’s top diplomat from Caracas on Monday and deployed troops to his country’s Colombian border.

Ecuador must strongly protest against Colombia’s actions, but would not react “excessively, like Chavez”, Ecuador’s deputy foreign minister Carlos Estarellas told Quito-based radio Sonorama.

Trade and traffic across Ecuador’s Colombian border would “continue freely”, immigration undersecretary Carlos Lopez said.

On Monday Colombia accused Ecuador of deepening ties with the FARC, claiming that a laptop seized at the bombed rebel camp documented top-level meetings between Ecuador’s government and rebel leaders.

Mr Correa, in turn, said the raid that killed top FARC leader Raul Reyes and 22 other guerrillas scuttled his government’s efforts to negotiate the freedom of 12 high-profile hostages held by the rebels, and insisted he had been helping Colombia against the FARC.

“Just last year we captured 47 rebel camps, when they only captured 13 between 2000 and 2006,” Mr Correa said yesterday.

Appearing with Mr Correa, Peruvian president Alan Garcia appeared to criticise Colombia. “There is a universal principle that must always be respected, which is the principle of territorial sovereignty,” he said.

But Mr Garcia, an ally of the US and Colombia, added that Colombia had “long suffered from the subversive movement”, referring to the FARC.