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U.S.
Denies Involvement In Colombia's 2008 Raid
Against FARC Camp in Ecuador
QUITO - The United States embassy in Ecuador
on Friday denied any U.S. involvement in the
Colombian army's raid against a camp of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
in the Ecuadorian territory in 2008.
A civil commission formed by the Ecuadorian
government to investigate the so-called
"Angostura" case related to the Colombian
army raid in Ecuador on Thursday presented a
final report, which stressed the importance
of the former U.S. Forward Operation
Location (FOL) in Manta base, west of
Ecuador, in the raid.
The 131-page report said that the strategic
intelligence information processed by Manta
FOL was fundamental to locate and track
FARC's second leader Luis Edgar Devia, alias
Raul Reyes, the main target of the raid.
In response, the U.S. embassy released a
statement, saying "these accusations (in the
report) were made before ..., the embassy
strongly rejects them."
"Manta's FOL was not involved by any means,
neither with the Colombian raid in Angostura
nor giving intelligence information," the
U.S. embassy said.
Noting that it has not had "the opportunity
of reviewing the report about Angostura,"
the U.S. embassy said it "cooperated with
the Commission in charge of the report, ...
regretted that the Commission has ignored
much of the information."
The Colombian Army bombed on March 1, 2008
the FARC camp established in Angostura,
Ecuador, killing 26 people including Raul
Reyes, four Mexican college students and one
Ecuadorian citizen.
The Ecuadorian government said the Colombian
government did not notify it of the action
beforehand and thus violated the Ecuadorian
sovereignty. In protest, it severed
diplomatic ties with Colombia.
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