[progchat_action] Brazil condemns Colombia's Ecuador raid
 
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:06:11 -0600 (CST)


Brazil condemns Colombia's Ecuador raid

By Raymond Colitt
 Reuters
March 3, 2008

Brasilia - Brazil's foreign minister on Monday condemned a Colombian
military strike on rebels inside Ecuador and called on Bogota to offer an
explicit apology.

"The territorial violation is very serious and needs to be condemned,"
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said in Brasilia. "Brazil condemns any
territorial violation."

Amorim also said the Colombian government should offer an "explicit" apology
to contain the growing crisis prompted by the weekend raid, in which
Colombian forces struck at a FARC rebel camp inside Ecuador.

He called for the Organization of American States (OAS) regional body to set
up a committee to investigate the circumstances of the attack, which
included air strikes and ground combat. Senior FARC leader Raul Reyes was
killed.

The incident has flared into the most dangerous dispute in Latin America for
years. Venezuela and Ecuador sent troops to their borders with Colombia on
Sunday and downgraded diplomatic ties.

"A more explicit apology to Ecuador for the territorial violation would help
contain the crisis," said Amorim, whose country is a regional diplomatic
power and shares a border with both Colombia and Venezuela.

Colombia should also explain any mitigating circumstance, such as if the
raid was mounted in self-defense or was a "hot pursuit" action, he said.

Earlier on Monday, Brazil said it would increase diplomatic efforts to help
resolve the standoff.

"This conflict ... is beginning to destabilize regional relations," said
Marco Aurelio Garcia, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's foreign policy
adviser.

"We are mobilizing all of Brazil's diplomatic resources and those of other
South American capitals to find a lasting solution," Garcia told CBN radio.

Lula was due to talk to Argentine President Cristina Fernandez to coordinate
diplomatic efforts, Garcia said. Chile also offered to take part in
resolving the conflict, he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN03395934

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