BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Ecuador’s president on Tuesday rejected allegations that his country is bombing targets in neighboring Colombia as tensions escalate between the two South American nations.
President Daniel Noboa said on X that his government “is fighting narco terrorism in all its forms” and “bombing places that serve as hideouts for those groups, of which many are Colombian,” but only within Ecuadorian territory.
Noboa was responding to Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who on Monday accused Ecuador of bombing targets on Colombia’s side of the border. He said a bomb had been found by Colombian officials, but provided no evidence to back up his claim, adding that he asked U.S. President Donald Trump to call Noboa and persuade him to stop the supposed operations in Colombian territory.
On Tuesday, Colombian state owned broadcaster RTVC, published photos of an unexploded bomb which it said had been found in a coca field, near the nation’s border with Ecuador.
The bishops of the border cities of Ipiales in Colombia and Tulcan in Ecuador urged both governments to strengthen dialogue and cooperation to find solutions to problems in the border region, including drug trafficking.
“We are worried about the expansion of illicit activities that deteriorate our social fabric and cause great damage to the environment,” the statement said.
The dispute comes as Colombia prepares for presidential elections in May, and relations deteriorate between Colombia and Ecuador, two neighboring nations that were once close commercial and security partners.
In January, Noboa imposed a 30% tariff on Colombian imports, which he later raised to 50%. The Ecuadorian president said Colombia has not done enough to stop drug traffickers and rebel groups from crossing into Ecuador, and said the tariffs, which he called a “security tax” will not be lifted until Colombia takes firmer actions against criminal groups.
Petro has denied accusations that his government is not acting against drug traffickers who ship Colombian cocaine out of Ecuadorian ports. The Colombian government has responded to Ecuador’s tariffs by imposing its own duties on Ecuadorian goods.
Noboa, a conservative, has struggled to reduce drug violence in Ecuador, where the homicide rate has quintupled over the past five years, and a nightly curfew is now being imposed by the government in four provinces in an effort to combat crime.
Recently Noboa’s government conducted a joint operation with U.S. forces against a drug traffickers camp near Ecuador’s border with Colombia, where drones, helicopters and river boats were deployed.
Petro, a leftist who was a member of a rebel group in his youth, has attempted to stage peace talks with Colombia’s remaining rebel groups under a strategy known as total peace.
Critics say the groups have used ceasefires with the government to tighten their grip over rural communities, as they fight over territory abandoned by the FARC, the guerrilla group that made a peace deal with Colombia’s government in 2016.
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Associated Press writer Gonzalo Solano contributed from Quito, Ecuador.
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