Officials Allege US Aided Ecuador Raid

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Officials Allege US Aided Ecuador Raid
Inter Press Service | March 25, 2008

MANTA, Ecuador - Senior military sources in Ecuador are drawing a link between the Manta air base, which is operated by the United States in Ecuadorean territory, and this month's bombing raid by Colombia on a FARC guerrilla camp in Ecuador.

The U.S. Air Force was granted a 10-year concession in 1999 to use the base, which is located in the port city of Manta on Ecuador's northern Pacific coast, as a headquarters for anti-drug measures in the region.

A high-level Ecuadorean military officer, who preferred to remain anonymous, said "a large proportion of senior officers" in Ecuador share "the conviction that the United States was an accomplice in the attack" launched March 1 by the Colombian military on a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) camp in Ecuador, near the Colombian border.

A FARC spokesman and 24 other people were killed in the bombing raid, which prompted Quito to break off diplomatic relations with Colombia. Ties were restored several days later.

"Since Plan Colombia was launched in 2000, a strategic alliance between the United States and Colombia has taken shape, first to combat the insurgents and later to involve neighboring countries in that war," the officer said. "What is happening today is a consequence of that."


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,164682,00.html