Ecuador asks Colombia to send troops to border to contain rebels

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.

Read more of Chris Kraul's report on Ecuador and Colombia here.

Click here for more on Colombia and here for more on Ecuador.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Comments

[N. Palacios]

I fail to see what is wrong with a state requesting that its neighbor please keep its civil war to itself.

Considering that Ecuador will probably take in more refugees this year than even the United States that one simple request doesn't seem too much to ask.

And as far as the evidence of a Ecuador-FARC link. What evidence? How strange that the so called evidence was never presented to anyone. Merely mentioned by Colombian officials and then forgotten about entirely.

If Colombia had legitimate evidence pointing to Ecuadorean support of the FARC, such headline-grabbing info would have been presented to the U.S., the OAS, and that evidence would be all over the television and internet.

And yet, all we have to go on is the mention of it once or twice by Colombian officials. The 'evidence' seems to have been forgotten entirely, as if it was unimportant.

Probably because it was never there.

[Rob Wildstyle]

Yeah, when Colombia made the decision to cross the Ecuadorian border to take out Reyes a man who's existence threatens the lives of hundreds of innocent people. A man who came into this country illegaly and armed. Correa cried his commie eyes out. With evidence in Reyes's computer suggesting that the Ecuadorian government was cooperation with the FARC he as well as Chavez have drastically changed their tune. This tune now is a different approach to the self righteousness that we are used to from these clowns. This one says “hopefully iff we really beef up the defenses along the border and get rid of more rebel camps that should eclipse the fact that Colombia has been doing it for years and we can hide what we have really been up to with the Farc. Taking Reyes out in Ecuador was their job to begin with the man is part of a group recognized by UN as a terroris group. Since Reyses and the Farc are bith idealogical lovers him and Chavez teemed up together for last years hissy fit.