AGREEMENT REACHED on Colombia at Rio Group Mtg in DR -- URIBE EATS CROW

[magbana]

Just saw video on the BBC of the end of the Rio Group meeting in Santo Domingo. Uribe is hopping around like a chicken trying to make nice with Chavez, Ortega, Correa.

Here's a quick report.

Deal agreed to end Colombia crisis

* Story Highlights
* Colombia apologizes for operation inside Ecuador
* Presidents of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador sign accord
* Accord affirm no country has the right to violate the territory of another
* Crisis sparked by Colombian military mission in Ecuador which killed FARC rebel

SANTA DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (CNN) -- The presidents of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador Friday signed a declaration to end a crisis sparked when Colombian troops killed a rebel leader and 21 others inside Ecuadoran territory.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe shook the hands of his left-leaning counterparts from Ecuador and Venezuela at the end of what had been a contentious meeting of the Rio Group of Latin American leaders.

In the accord, the leaders condemn Colombia's action and affirm that no country has the right to violate the territory of another. The leaders also accept Colombia's apology for the incident and accept that Uribe will not repeat it.

"With the promise not to ever again assault a brother country and the request for forgiveness (by Colombia), we can consider this very serious incident resolved," said Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa.

During the meeting, Correa and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez verbally pummeled Uribe, with Correa chiding him for "insolence" and urging him to "stop trying to justify the unjustifiable."

The diplomatic spat began Saturday when Colombian troops and police crossed into Ecuador and killed 22 people, including Luis Edgar Devia Silva, known as "Raul Reyes," the second-in-command of the leadership council of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC in its Spanish acronym.

The Colombian government said it seized laptops from the attacked rebel camp showing that Venezuela gave $300 million to the rebels and that senior Ecuadoran officials met with FARC rebels. VideoWatch aftermath of raid on camp »

Ecuador and Venezuela, which denies the Colombian allegations, promptly condemned the raid and moved troops to their borders with Colombia.

Both countries and Nicaragua moved to cut diplomatic ties with Colombia and took their complaints to the Organization of American States, which ordered a commission to investigate.

The dispute carried on to Friday's previously scheduled meeting of the Rio Group. VideoWatch harsh words as summit begins »

The group is an organization of Latin American nations that seeks to expand cooperation among member states and recommend solutions to common problems, among other things.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said that in light of Friday's events, Nicaragua would "take a step back from breaking relations with Colombia."

Meanwhile, the Colombian army said that another member of FARC's leadership council --Ivan Rios, the nom de guerre of Manuel de Jesus Munoz -- had been killed

The two leaders are the first members of the seven-member leadership council, known as general secretariat, to be killed by Colombia in the 44 years the rebel group has been fighting to overthrow the government.

On Wednesday, the Organization of American States ordered a commission to investigate Colombia's attack. The commission plans to visit Colombia and Ecuador and "propose formulas for bringing the two nations closer together."

The organization also adopted a statement referring to the Colombian attack as "a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ecuador and of principles of international law."

In Ecuador, thousands of people marched in the capital of Quito to advocate peace and a defense of Ecuadoran sovereignty. Prosecutors in the province where the attack happened said they have opened an investigation into the 22 deaths.

CNN's Rey Rodriguez and Rodolfo Munoz contributed to this report.

All AboutColombia • Ecuador • Venezuela • Organization of American States • Nicaragua



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[EFerrari]

1. Am I correct in believing that the United States is not in this organization?

I'm so happy no one else will get hurt because of Uribe's stupidity in this matter.

[magbana]

2. You are correct, the Rio Group is only for Latin American countries

and was created to counter the OAS for obvious reasons.

You gotta check out the BBC video of the handshakes, especially the one between Uribe and Correa.. I've seen some cold looks before, but Correa's look was downright ARCTIC. Here's the link - look to right of article and you will see the link for the video.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7284597.stm

[EFerrari]

3. LOL! "Lucky for you I already ate dinner."

:rofl:

[Peace Patriot]

4. I had a different take on Correa's look (smoldering Sir Lancelot, who,

in another era, would have simply run this treacherous little worm through with a sword, and been done with it).

It was Cristina Fernandez's look that was arctic. She cut him dead.

[Bacchus39]

5. no price paid by Colombia for killing of terrorist leader

the only surprising thing was it blew over a couple of days quicker than I anticipated.