Crisis Deepens as Colombia Links Ecuador to FARC

The tension in Latin America deepened last night as a Colombian general charged that Ecuador’s president had ties to a FARC leader killed by Colombian forces Saturday. Ecuador and Venezuela have both mobilized troops to their borders in response to the raid, which they claim took place on Ecuadorean territory. Colombia says its forces, attacking targets in Colombia, merely returned fire when FARC rebels shelled them from about a mile inside Ecuador.

"There is not any justification for foreign military action in our territory," said Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa, who has also expelled Colombia’s ambassador and withdrawn his country’s delegation. The attack killed FARC’s second-in-command, known as “Raul Reyes,” and numerous others. The Colombian charges, based on documents found in computers captured in the raid, are lies, an Ecuadorean spokesman told the AP. (More Colombia stories.)