Colombia-Ecuador relations
Encyclopedia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
. The present territory of both countries was part of the Spanish Empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
. After the wars for independence against the Spain led by Simón Bolívar
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...
, Ecuador, Colombia (then called New Granada
New Granada
New Granada may refer to various former national denominations for the present-day country of Colombia.*New Kingdom of Granada, from 1538 to 1717*Viceroyalty of New Granada, from 1717 to 1810, re-established from 1816 to 1819...
), and Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
became part of the Republic of Gran Colombia
Gran Colombia
Gran Colombia is a name used today for the state that encompassed much of northern South America and part of southern Central America from 1819 to 1831. This short-lived republic included the territories of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, northern Peru and northwest Brazil. The...
in 1819. Gran Colombia struggled to hold itself together as a country, and after intense civil conflicts between political factions, the union fell apart in 1830.
Diplomatic relations
Present-day Colombia and Ecuador trace back established official diplomatic relations to December, 1831 with the signing of the Treaty of Pasto, in which both countries recognized each other as sovereign states. The Ecuadorean diplomatic mission in New Granada (Colombia) did not open until 1837. It wasn't until 1939 that Ecuador raised the diplomatic mission's status to an official Embassy. Colombia did the same the following year in 1940.Andean diplomatic crisis (2008)
On March 1, 2008 the Colombian military launched an attack against FARC in the border area between Colombia and Ecuador, which ended with the death of some 19 guerrillas including the group's second in command Raul ReyesRaúl Reyes
Luis Edgar Devia Silva , better known by his nom de guerre Raúl Reyes, was a Secretariat member, spokesperson, and advisor to the Southern Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-EP...
and one Colombian soldier. The attack targeted a guerrilla camp some 1.8 km inside Ecuadorean territory.
Colombian president Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe
Alvaro Uribe Vélez was the 58th President of Colombia, from 2002 to 2010. In August 2010 he was appointed Vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid....
called the Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa
Rafael Correa
Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado born is the President of the Republic of Ecuador and was the president pro tempore of the Union of South American Nations. An economist educated in Ecuador, Belgium and the United States, he was elected President in late 2006 and took office in January 2007...
, arguing that Colombian forces had crossed the border during combat in pursuit of the guerrillas. Correa said he would investigate the events and later accused the Colombian president of being either misinformed or lying to him. The accusation was based on the information provided by the Ecuadorean army in the bombed area, describing what Correa later called a "massacre". According to the Ecuadorean president, bodies in their underwear or pajamas were found in the guerrilla camp, indicating that they would have been sleeping at the time of the bomb raid and that there was no "hot pursuit" as president Uribe had informed him hours earlier. The Ecuadorean president decided then to recall his ambassador in Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
for consultations. The Colombian government subsequently apologized for its actions while accusing the Ecuadorean government of giving safe conduct to the FARC. The Organization of American States authorized the Colombia-Ecuador Good Offices Mission to promote the re-establishment of trust among the two governments through confidence building measures and prevent and verify any border incidents. http://www.oas.org/sap/peacefund/ColombiaAndEcuador/
Reacting to the event, President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez stated that if Colombia launched a similar operation within Venezuelan borders he would consider it a casus belli
Casus belli
is a Latin expression meaning the justification for acts of war. means "incident", "rupture" or indeed "case", while means bellic...
and verbally attacked the Colombian president. Chávez ordered ten Venezuelan national guard battalions to the Colombia-Venezuela border and closed its embassy in Bogotá. Chávez also offered his support to Ecuadorean president Correa.
Purported plans to destabilize Colombia
In a press conference held on March 3, 2008 the Colombian National PoliceColombian National Police
The National Police of Colombia is the national police force of Colombia. Although the National Police is not part of the Military of Colombia , it constitutes along with them the "Public Force" and is also controlled by the Ministry of Defense. They are the largest police force in Colombia...
chief Oscar Naranjo claimed that their intelligence service had confiscated three computers from Raúl Reyes
Raúl Reyes
Luis Edgar Devia Silva , better known by his nom de guerre Raúl Reyes, was a Secretariat member, spokesperson, and advisor to the Southern Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-EP...
with extensive information purportedly detailing a close relationship between the FARC and the governments of Hugo Chávez and Rafael Correa. The police chief stated that these documents proved that the Ecuadorean government agreed with Reyes to provide safe conduct for him in Ecuadorean territory. He also accused Venezuela of having plans to destabilize the Colombian government and a plan to provide uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
to the FARC and produce a dirty bomb
Dirty bomb
A dirty bomb is a speculative radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the explosion with radioactive material, hence the attribute "dirty"....
.
These claims are denied by the Ecuadorian government sustaining that the little contact they had with FARC was well known by the Colombian government, and it was for humanitarian purposes only. In a visit to Brazil, Correa made a comparisson by pointing out that president of France, Sarkozy is also in contact with FARC, and yet nobody would even think to accuse him of such things. Venezuela rejected the accusations by sarcasticly saying that from these computers would come out every document the Colombian government decides they need.
Suspension of diplomatic relations
As a response to the crisis the Ecuadorean government of Rafael Correa decided to end any diplomatic relations with Colombia, ordered the Ecuadorean embassy in Colombia to close and expelled the Colombian ambassador.The Ecuadorian and Colombian
President of Colombia
The President of Colombia is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Colombia. The office of president was established upon the ratification of the Constitution of 1819, by the Congress of Angostura, convened in December 1819, when Colombia was part of "la Gran Colombia"...
presidents Rafael Correa
Rafael Correa
Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado born is the President of the Republic of Ecuador and was the president pro tempore of the Union of South American Nations. An economist educated in Ecuador, Belgium and the United States, he was elected President in late 2006 and took office in January 2007...
and Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe
Alvaro Uribe Vélez was the 58th President of Colombia, from 2002 to 2010. In August 2010 he was appointed Vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid....
agreed to restore low-level diplomatic relations at the level of Chargé d'Affaires
Chargé d'affaires
In diplomacy, chargé d’affaires , often shortened to simply chargé, is the title of two classes of diplomatic agents who head a diplomatic mission, either on a temporary basis or when no more senior diplomat has been accredited.-Chargés d’affaires:Chargés d’affaires , who were...
immediately and without preconditions on June 6, 2008 following individual communications with and under a deal brokered by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
.