Ecuador blames Uribe for damaging Ecuador-Colombia ties

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has blamed Alvaro Uribe for wrecking trust between the two nations by ordering a military attack on Ecuador's soil without asking permission from Ecuador.

"President Uribe preferred asking for forgiveness to asking for permission and that is not how you build trust," Correa said in an interview published here on Monday by Colombian daily El Tiempo.

Ecuador broke off its diplomatic ties with Uribe's government in March 2008 after the Colombian military raided a camp of the rebelling Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Ecuador, killing more than 20 people, including an FARC chief.

Correa told El Tiempo that Colombia still had not met conditions set by the Ecuadorian government to resume diplomatic relations.

"They bombed us and we need to know why. The bombs were U.S.-made, intelligent devices were never before used in the region," he said.

Correa said Uribe had promised to deliver a report on the incident, but failed to do so.

Correa also said he hoped that Juan Manuel Santos, who was sworn in as Colombia's 59th president on Saturday, would come to Ecuador soon even though Ecuador was currently prosecuting him.

Correa said he had told Santos that he "can go to Ecuador as often as he wants, and we hope he does so soon, thanks to his immunity as head of state," Correa said.

"As soon as the Colombian government has fulfilled the commitments it has acquired, we will be very pleased to reestablish diplomatic relations," he added.

Correa said the new Colombian government had already delivered information that had been stored on computers belonging to Raul Reyes, the FARC chief who was killed in the 2008 attack.

Source: Xinhua