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Recipe for disaster in South America

When Uribe ordered killing of insurgent, he may not have expected such repercussions.

  • Gulf News
  • Published: 00:53 March 6, 2008
  • Gulf News

A raid, a killing, then accusations involving funding for terrorists and plans to acquire uranium to make a "dirty bomb". When Colombia's president Alvaro Uribe ordered his troops to kill a leading Marxist insurgent in Ecuador it is doubtful he expected such repercussions.

The three laptops seized in the raid could have wider repercussions than the assassination of Raul Reyes, the senior commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) who was the original target. Colombia claims the laptops held highly damaging information implicating Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. These allegations have yet to be proved.

The raid occurred just as some Farc hostages had been released and there were hopes that more would be freed. That now seems impossible. A military build-up along the borders of Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia contains the seeds of a terrible escalation. The raid has unleashed passions that must be curtailed.

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