The death in Ecuador of FARC's second in command, Ra�l Reyes, on March 1st, leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

Reyes and several other FARC members were massacred while they slept in a temporary encampment located in Ecuadorian territory just over one mile from the Colombian border.

According to a statement from Ecuadorian President, Rafael Correa, his ambassador to Bogot� will be recalled for consultations and a statement of protest will be sent concerning the Colombian military incursion into Ecuador which resulted in the death of FARC commander, Ra�l Reyes.

Correa, who is awaiting a report from Ecuador�s armed forces about the events which happened on the common border in order to give a final pronouncement, said in a press conference, that Colombian President, �lvaro Uribe �was either badly informed or told barefaced lies to Ecuador�s President.� (When Uribe phoned Correa and told him that there was a �hot pursuit underway�)

�We will go to all lengths to clarify this scandalous event which is an aggression to our territory and our homeland,� stated Correa who also emphasized that �we will not allow another aggression (from Colombia)�.

He assured reporters that the guerrillas were massacred while they slept in a temporary encampment, which meant that there was no armed confrontation, and then Colombian militaries entered Ecuadorian territory to recover the corpses.

�But that is not the only factor,� emphasized Correa; �the corpses were dressed in sleeping attire which shows that there was not a hot persecution and they were bombed and massacred while they were asleep,� he added.

Initial reports in Venezuela spoke about Reyes being �shot down� when according to President Correa, it was an air strike by Colombian planes in Ecuadorian territory which killed Reyes. This is a brazen violation of Ecuador�s national and territorial sovereignty. Read this link to see how the right wing media have treated this matter.

As a consequence of this incident, President Correa has canceled his trip to Cuba slated for March 3rd in order to deal with the diplomatic crisis generated by Colombia. 

We should not be surprised at this violation of Ecuador�s sovereignty since Colombia did the same thing in December 2005 when Rodrigo Granda, allegedly FARC�s foreign minister, was kidnapped in Bellas Artes in Caracas, violating Venezuela�s sovereignty.

The private and corporate media in Venezuela did not condemn Colombia for the Grande incident and will not condemn Colombia�s armed forces into Ecuador. In principle, they agree with Bush�s unilaterally declared �war on terror� where it appears that anything goes.

As one blogger on Oil Wars asked today; �Ask yourself this question: what would the reaction of the US be if Mexico pursued known drug barons into say, Texas, and bombed US territory in the name of justice and then sent Mexican troops into the US to recover the bodies?� And then claimed that it was a victory in the drug war? While there is no evidence that FARC is involved in transporting drugs (referent to the blogger's analogy), the point remains: Obviously, Washington and Bogota do not view international law, the Geneva Convention or the 1648 Westphalian Treaty as impediments to their violations of the sovereignty of other countries with bombs and troops. 

Colombia�s puppet President, Uribe, no doubt agrees with this policy but as an instrument of US foreign actions in the region, will not cease to do his Washington masters� bidding. Effectively, Colombia itself surrendered its own national sovereignty in 2000 when then President Andr�s Pastrana accepted Plan Colombia and US advisers and troops on Colombian territory. Hence, the concept of national sovereignty means little or nothing to these Colombian regimes.

For the US State Department, Ch�vez is �a destabilizing force in the region�. After this military incursion into Ecuador, we can guess that Uribe will be lauded for trying to keep the peace on Colombia�s common borders. Who is really the �destabilizing influence�, we may ask?

What peace process?

The release of a four more hostages by the FARC last week as a gesture to contribute to the peace process in Colombia has received a huge slap in the face by Colombia�s military action in Ecuador on March 1st. It simply proves that neither, this present Colombian government nor the U.S. wants peace in Colombia, since this would mean eventually pulling out U.S. troops from Colombian territory and therefore relinquishing its beach head in South America. Bogota and Washington obviously want a military response from FARC following FARC's unilateral release of prisoners of war. Today, 350,000 troops and police were put on full alert in Colombia. FARC responded today saying that the humanitarian mission (to release prisoners of war) will continue.

President Ch�vez and Colombian senator Piedad C�rdoba have achieved the first unilateral hostage releases by the FARC in more than 30 years. These are real results for the families of the hostages and both Ch�vez and C�rdoba should be lauded for their persistence and humanitarian commitment.

What has Uribe done in this context? Despite three years of pretending an attempt to open negotiations with the FARC and after negotiating with the ELN in Havana last year, he has absolutely nothing to show. When the first two hostages were released in January, their liberation was forestalled due to Colombian military operations in the release zone � according to the eye witness account of Clara Rojas, one of the prisoners released by the FARC. Uribe lied and denied that there were any military operations at that time. His lies were exposed by Rojas whose life was put in danger by Colombia's aggression during an extremely sensitive prisoner-release operation.

FARC's Release of POWs and Colombia's response

Uribe unilaterally took Ch�vez and C�rdoba off the mediation team to release FARC-held prisoners when they were on the verge of achieving results, which have subsequently been demonstrated before the world.

Uribe will not try and negotiate a political deal and his form of running a peace process is to bomb any suspected FARC columns or encampments. "Defeat the FARC militarily" is the Uribe philosophy. This begs the question- where is Colombia�s role to bring peace to its own nation after 60 years of violence and civil war triggered by the assassination of Jorge Eli�cer Gait�n on April 4th 1948 on a Bogot� street?

The Granda incident in Caracas and now a military incursion into Ecuador are clear signs of the policy of Bogot�/Washington to escalate tension and war in the region.

Israel bombs and slaughters Palestinians and Lebanese citizens with impunity in the Middle East and no UN Resolution has ever been passed against these violations of human rights by the Security Council. The US always uses its veto.

If a resolution at the OAS or the UN were to be tabled against Colombia for this military incursion into Ecuadorian territory, would that be vetoed as well? If so, this means that the US will have created another rogue state in South America, with Colombia being encouraged to act with impunity against its neighbors' territory and sovereignty.

Tanks and troops on way to Colombo-Venezuela border

Former Venezuelan Vice President, Jos� Vicente Rangel, declared on his TV program �Jos� Vicente Hoy� broadcast on Televen today, that Colombia has started mobilizing troops and tanks toward its border with Venezuela.

President Ch�vez in his weekly TV program �Al� Presidente� ordered the closure of Venezuela�s embassy in Bogot� and the return home of all embassy and consular staff. In response to Colombia troop movements he ordered the mobilization of 10 battalions of troops to be sent to the border with Colombia and informed the public that Venezuela would not attend the UNASUR Summit due to be held in Colombia. 

With a potentially �new Israel� on the South American continent, The Dogs of War are about to be let off their leashes at anytime.

Stay with Axis of Logic for the most up to date coverage of this developing story.