ECUADOR:THE PRESIDENTS of Ecuador and Colombia clashed at a Latin American summit yesterday as leaders scrambled to defuse a regional crisis over a cross-border raid by Colombia to kill a rebel commander.
Leftist Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa called his conservative Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe a liar for accusing him of links to Marxist rebels sheltering in Ecuador.
The two interrupted each other. Mr Correa repeatedly shook his head, smiled disdainfully and at one point said to Mr Uribe: "Calm down, president, calm down. How difficult it is to believe someone who has lied so much."Mr Uribe replied: "Responding to your smile, I have to say we have no interest in hiding anything here."
The clash erupted as Colombia's army killed another senior rebel yesterday, highlighting Mr Uribe's US-backed offensive that has made him popular at home in the decades-old conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). The rebel, Ivan Rios, was a high-ranking commander but not as senior as the guerrilla killed in the Ecuador attack.
Despite the tensions at the summit in the Dominican Republic, Mr Correa mapped out a diplomatic exit from the crisis, demanding the participants condemn Colombia and that Mr Uribe apologise for the attack and pledge never to do it again.
"This is an emergency, an emergency with the most serious consequences if we do not act in time," Mr Correa said.
Ecuador and its leftist ally Venezuela have sent thousands of troops to their borders with Colombia and, with Nicaragua, have cut ties with their neighbour.
Most analysts say the crisis should not escalate into South America's first armed conflict since Peru and Ecuador fought briefly over their border more than a decade ago.
Mr Uribe repeated an apology for the raid, under pressure from regional governments, including heavyweights Brazil and Mexico.
On the eve of the summit, he had pledged that his forces will not attack on neighbours' soil if they stop Farc rebels from taking shelter. "I didn't inform him of the operation because we have not had co-operation from the government of President Correa in the fight against terrorism," Mr Uribe said during the summit.
Mr Correa demanded condemnation of Colombia.
"We hope this belligerence is stopped at its core and that Ecuador's demands are satisfied after we suffered Colombia's aggression and a violation of our sovereignty," he said. In a sign Ecuador also could move to appease Colombia's anger, the small Andean nation made a rare capture in a border area of five people it said were rebels. -