Tensions Rising

As an update to the tense border conflict that began Saturday (see post below), the International Herald Tribune reported that Correa was in "advanced" talks to liberate 12 hostages held by the FARC. Correa claims that he was close to negotiating the release of the hostages, including Ingrid Betancourt. Gustavo Larrea, Ecuador's Security Minister, acknowledged that he had met with FARC rebels (substantiating the earlier claims that Correa had sought to contact the Rebels). Colombia stated that the evidence they found on a laptop recovered at the raid site showed that Ecuador was not in contact with the FARC to improve humanitarian conditions, it was rather "hostage trafficking for political means." Colombia has yet to release the documents.

The more serious claim from Colombia comes against Chavez. They say that documents recovered from the computer provides evidence that Chavez has had financial ties with the FARC dating back to 1992 with one payment of around $300 million. Chavez has rejected the accusations, calling President Uribe a "liar" and a "mob boss."

It has been a good long while since we have seen tensions this strong in Latin America. It will definitely be interesting to see how this all pans out, especially if and when Colombia releases the information it gained from the laptop. The whole situation with Ecuador and Colombia does bring up some serious questions