COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK STATEMENT ON INVASION OF ECUADOR
March 11, 2008
The Colombia Support Network (CSN) registers its total
disagreement with the Bush Administration’s support of the Uribe
Administration’s violation of Ecuadorian territory to kill members of
the FARC guerrillas located at a provisional camp nearly one mile
inside the Ecuadorian border. It is clear that Colombian
forces were not “in hot pursuit” of FARC guerrillas in response to a
FARC attack, as President Uribe falsely told President Rafael Correa
of Ecuador after the fact, of the Colombian attack inside Ecuador.
It is clear that the Colombian government violated
international law with its cross-border attack, as virtually all the
other governments in South America have recognized. The other
countries in the region had expressed their solidarity with the
Ecuadorian government.
We are concerned that the Bush Administration by approving President
Uribe’s breach of international law may be attempting to promote
controversy between Colombia and its neighbors, to impede
economic and political integration of the South American countries and
to curtail socialist experiments in the region such as those in
Venezuela. Ecuador has refused to extend the term for the
US military base in Manta.
We reject the doctrine of pre- emptive strikes across national
borders. The U.S. government should consider how it would
feel if its doctrines applied to acts of other countries were applied to
this country.
We welcome the good faith attempt to resolve issues peacefully which
was evidenced at the Latin American leaders meeting in Santo Domingo
last week.
We call upon the U.S. Congress and the Presidential candidates to
renounce Bush interventionist doctrines, which are leading our
country toward being considered an international pariah. We call
upon them to express their disapproval of Colombia’s violation of
Ecuadorian sovereignty.
Colombia Support Network
P.O. Box 1505
Madison, WI 53701-1505
phone: (608) 257-8753
fax: (608) 255-6621
e-mail: csn@igc.org
http://www.colombiasupport.net
.