Moves to renew relations between Ecuador and Colombia collapsed on Tuesday as part of a smoldering feud between South American neighbors of the left and right.
The latest round of bickering began Tuesday when Colombian Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo said his country was postponing renewal of relations with Ecuador _ which had been announced earlier this month _ because of unspecified "aggressive" comments.
Araujo aides pointed to a recent newspaper interview with Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, who blamed Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe for the spats that began with Colombia's cross-border raid on a guerrilla camp on March 1.
"The problem is not with the Colombian people. The problem is with Uribe," Correa told the Argentine newspaper Pagina 12 in an article published Sunday.
Ecuador's foreign minister, Maria Isabel Salvador, responded Tuesday by saying her country too was suspending efforts to renew ties and was considering trade restrictions.
"They have spoken of postponing their decision. We have taken the decision to not re-establish relations with Colombia," Salvador told a news conference Tuesday. "I'm not going to say for how long."
"Once more the Colombian government is going against its word," Salvador added. "If the situation doesn't improve, ... we do not rule out the eventual possibility of imposing trade restrictions."
Correa and his government have repeatedly denounced Colombia for the March 1 raid that killed a guerrilla chief and 24 other people, and they have bitterly denied Colombian allegations that documents found on computers at the rebel camp showed the rebels had at least tried to help finance Correa's presidential campaign.
The raid sent a crack across South America's ideological fault line between Uribe's pro-U.S. government and the socialist leaders of Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia, who accuse the U.S. of meddling in the region.
Ecuador severed ties with Colombia two days after the incursion.
Correa told Pagina 12 that he was sure a U.S. plane carried the bombs that hit the rebel camp in his country.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter had mediated the June 6 agreement between Ecuador and Colombia to exchange diplomats just short of ambassador rank as a step toward full ties.
