The following AP article, while failing to actually report the lengthy list of Rafael Correa's positions against Colombia, highlights the irresponsibly naive efforts to create a diplomatic break between Ecuador and Colombia by the well  paid, but extremely uninformed, "civil activists," [also called highly paid NGOs] that  press daily the Palacio and newly formed Correa team to wage a baseless and very expensive political war of words against Uribe's "Plan Colombia," in order to form a more perfect narcostate in Colombia.

This is reckless and ultimately fractious. Any efforts to aid and comfort the criminally active narcoterrorists- the FARC.- as Ecuador's leadership portends to perform, is unacceptable. While hastily vacating any semblance of moral leadership, the cult- like efforts of the current leadership viz Palacio and Correa would be better serving Ecuador by offering to protect and defend against narcoterrorists. We see very little attention to sustainable goals by Correa's team (however much they deceptively back peddle) and a lengthy list of decidedly unpresidential activities, all of which add up to cause juste to reject Correa.

With an obviousness of timing that should not be ignored, no sooner had Correa been formally confirmed as the head of Ecuador by the Electoral Commission than he immediately jetted off to Caracas to commence his cult-like obedience to Hugo Chavez. In fact, Rafael Correa waited only moments after being officially confirmed as legitimately elected before instantaneously rejecting his past campaign pledges- made solely to deceive voters- exposing his own lies, and hastily reaffirming the opposite to which he pledged on the campaign trail.

Current president Palacio's pledge to not break relations with Colombia today exhibits a hollow return to a latent principled position, long abandoned by Palacio's team, in a hasty, and very obvious, effort to inappropriately retain U.S. VISA status by ceasing, on the surface at least, its visible support for the FARC which would obviate a revocation of any capacity to enjoy their desired shopping mall destinations.

Ecuador's adventure in to the darkening world of Chavez and Correa, where all pledges are undone and promises made are meaningless, was a very stupid adventure into setting false polemics against Colombia's principled stand against the murderous FARC  to assuage the adolescent pro-Farc activists and lobbyists who now claim that the FARC warrants human rights protections in their "alternative" world.

This foolishness and all its paid propagandists have gone too far. Standing side by side, Chavez and Correa both teamed to engineer an anti-Colombia effrontery in Caracas. While news cameras rolled, Chavez and Correa lobbed their false defense of the FARC on the record. We are reminded that the first role of any government is to never make the best the enemy of the good. It is obvious to any with eyes open that Rafael Correa has objectionably (and illegally) joined Chavez's campaign to provide aid and comfort to narcoterrorists, especially the criminal FARC and its growing variants today.

Ecuador is today untenably known for its criminal status as a money laundering capital and a massive narco-shipment hub, only outdone by Chavez's burgeoning narcotrade. Rafael Correa reprehensibly set about to make the best the enemy of the good. There is no honor in these acts and there is no rejoicing in growing evil which has visually grown to avalanche proportions in Ecuador. We would do well to stand against this growing avalanche of unacceptable, criminally destabilizing behaviors and not reward thugs, criminals and narcoterrorists wherever they occur.

- the Editors, ECrisis

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Ecuador Won't End Columbian Relations

The Associated Press

By JEANNETH VALDIVIESO

December 26, 2006

A break between two nations that have historically been fraternal and that are friends is unthinkable

Ecuador's outgoing government will not break diplomatic relations with Colombia despite mounting tensions over that nation's refusal to halt U.S.-backed aerial fumigation of coca crops along the shared border, the foreign minister said Tuesday.

President Alfredo Palacio recalled Ecuador's ambassador for consultation after Colombia resumed the spraying to within 330 feet of the border because growers had swarmed into the area. Ecuador is demanding Colombia respect a six-mile buffer zone established in January, arguing the herbicide glyphosate drifts across the border, killing legal crops and causing health problems.

But Foreign Minister Francisco Carrion told Channel 10 television that 'Ecuador will not break relations, at least not the government of President Palacio.'

'A break between two nations that have historically been fraternal and that are friends is unthinkable,' he said.

The dispute also prompted President-elect Rafael Correa, who takes office Jan. 15, to abruptly cancel a Friday visit to Bogota. However, Correa has not mentioned any intention of breaking off relations, and he has welcomed Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to his inauguration.

The Venezuelan government jumped into the fray Tuesday, protesting comments by Colombia's interior minister last week suggesting that President Hugo Chavez may have influenced Correa's aborted visit. Correa announced he was canceling the trip during a joint news conference with the Venezuelan leader in Caracas.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said the Colombian interior minister's suggestion was a 'serious insult' and a 'double offense' to Chavez and Correa.

Colombia's Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo, however, denied her government ever blamed Venezuela for Correa's decision to cancel his visit, saying the Chavez and Uribe governments enjoy excellent relations.

'The government has in no moment tried to attribute any responsibility whatsoever to the government of Venezuela for the issues currently being discussed between Colombia and Ecuador,' Araujo said in a statement Tuesday.

Under the protection of U.S.-supplied Black Hawk helicopters, Colombia's anti-narcotic police sprayed a record 450,000 acres of coca this year as part of a campaign that has cost U.S. taxpayers $4 billion since 2000.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.