The government of Ecuador has just released a report finding that the US helped Colombia assassinate FARC leader Raul Reyes on its soil in 2008.
A Colombian attack on a rebel camp in Ecuador in March 2008 was carried out with support from US forces based in Ecuador, a new report alleges.
The report was prepared for the Ecuadorian government.
It says that US intelligence provided from a base within Ecuador was used in the execution of the attack.
The report comes at a bad time as Ecuador and Colombia were just beginning to re-establish diplomatic relations.
Now, the Beeb talks about the bad timing of this report for blossoming Ecuador-Colombian relations.
But let’s talk about the timing of the report given other recent revelations about US involvement–or rather, Blackwater involvement–in assassinations of late.
Mind you, there is no hint from coverage of the report that contractors were involved in this assassination (I’m looking for the report now). And it was already pretty obvious that we were involved in this and other operations with Colombia against FARC. But I do find the explicit accusations about US involvement in assassinations to be interesting timing.
Update: Okay, after having read some more detailed Spanish stories on this, they’re alleging primarily that the US provided the SIGINT for the attack out of their base in Colombia at Manta. The stories emphasize that the actual troops involved were Colombian. Another report rules out involvement of US planes because those at Manta don’t have the capabilities for such a mission.