ECUADOR
Ecuador: `Executed in cold blood'
Raul Connolly
10 May 2008
According to a May 7 Prensa Latina report, the Ecuadorian government has denounced Colombia following the release of evidence that the Colombian military had executed four prisoners as part of its infamous March 1 assault on a camp of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that was within Ecuadorian territory.
The attack, which violated Ecuadorian sovereignty and was unanimously rejected by the Organization of American States, resulted in the deaths of over 20 members of the camp, including the FARC’s chief negotiator, an Ecuadorian civilian and four Mexican students.
Prensa Latina reported that preliminary autopsies on the bodies recovered by Ecuadorian forces reveal that four of the dead had been murdered in captivity — “executed in cold blood”, according to Ecuadorian government minister Fernando Bustamante.
Prensa Latina reported: “Bustamante, along with the Security chief Gustavo Larrea and foreign minister Maria Isabel Salvador said they have evidence that several of the victims were shot in the back.”
