Above: Peace between the leaders

After one week of bickering and threats, the presidents of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela have ended their border dispute.

In a summit hosted by President Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic, the three presidents shook hands in the live Latin America broadcast to formally end to their recent differences.

“And with this … this incident that has caused so much damage (is) resolved,” said leftist Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa before standing up and shaking hands with his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe, who happens to be a Western-backed conservative.

Afterwards Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez followed suit and shook Uribe’s hand, applauded loudly, and then smiled. (A picture of the TV broadcast shown above: President Uribe is on the left, and President Chavez is on the right, while President Fernandez looks on with a smile)

“This summit was a gift from God,” Chavez said. “We are all happy. Peace! … we must unite and integrate.”

The reconciliation came after Uribe apologized to Correa. Many believe he was pressured by the other governments in the region. All of the other countries wanted to prevent the crisis from escalating into the region’s first armed conflict since Ecuador and Peru fought over borders — which was more than ten years ago.

More importantly, the resolution also renews hope for the release of the remaining FARC hostages, which includes French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans. President Chavez also announced at the summit that he had new proof regarding the whereabouts of the 10 Colombian soldiers that were held captive by the FARC.

The dispute between the countries started when Colombia went after Raul Reyes of the FARC who was in a camp inside Ecuador. Afterwards, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez showed support for Ecuador by sending soldiers and tanks into the Colombian border (see picture below: one of the Venezuelan tanks as it was transported into the Colombian border). The countries immediately cut diplomatic ties with each other, with leftist ally Nicaragua joining the fray against Colombia — who happens to be the largest ally of the United States in Latin America.

Below: Venezuelan Tank around the border

President Correa demanded Colombia not to make the same mistake in the future. Uribe complied and guaranteed no such raids would take place given that the neighboring country cooperated in the fight against FARC.

This certainly means we haven’t seen the last of this conflict. Uribe and the United States firmly believe that these leftist countries have strong ties with the FARC and have been protecting them inside their territories. During the time of the dispute, Uribe even went as far as saying that President Chavez and Correa supported terrorism because they are funded by paramilitary drug traffickers like the FARC.

In related news, another FARC leader was killed, this time inside Colombia and by one of his own men.

46 year old Manuel Jesus Ortiz or Ivan Rios, Head of the Central Bloc, was killed by his own security chief yesterday. According to Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, Rios’ group was cornered in their base which lacked supplies and communication. To relieve the military pressure, his security chief, a guy named Rojas, together with two other men killed Rios and handed over his severed right hand, passport, ID, and laptop to the authorities.

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