Crisis on the Colombian Borders

Last weekend Colombian troops surpassed the Ecuadorian border while hunting down guerrilla insurgents, prompting an international crisis in the north of South America. On its own merit this violation of Ecuadorian sovereignty is unacceptable. But even more so given the relatively diligent attitude the Ecuadorian government has had against the guerrilla. Unlike Colombia’s eastern neighbor, Venezuela, there’s hardly any ground to suspect the Ecuadorian government of nurturing the guerrilla. During last year, the first of Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa in office, over 40 guerrilla bases in the Ecuadorian jungle were detected and assailed by Ecuador's army. Why did the Colombian army set foot on a neighbor, sovereign land then?

It is simply hard to understand the motivations of Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. According to his own reports the guerrilla is undergoing a crisis in troop morale and legitimacy. As a consequence, provoking an international crisis of this magnitude can only give the guerrilla a good breath. True, in the military operation in Ecuador the Colombian army killed an important Farc commander. But this happened in the midst of negotiations between Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and the guerrilla to free a number of hostages. In fact, the same hostages that Uribe has used as the battle flag against the guerrilla.

A third component that plays in the equation is the Bush administration. Time and again Bush has condemned the guerrilla and its kidnappings. It seems to follow that Bush, admittedly friendly to Uribe’s administration, would like to see those hostages free (especially considering that some of them are American citizens). And yet he doesn't seem to regret the sabotage of the negotiations by Colombia’s army. As a conclusion, one could speculate that though Uribe and Bush want freedom for those hostages, neither wants it so bad as to let Chávez get all the credit for it. Once again we seem to have grounds to suspect that Bush and Uribe see their compatriots as pieces on the ideological chessboard.