María Isabel Salvador, 46, is the foreign minister of Ecuador. Appointed to her cabinet post last December, Salvador has been at the forefront of President Rafael Correa's ongoing efforts to obtain international condemnation of Colombia for the March 1 cross-border raid that killed Raul Reyes, a senior guerrilla commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and 24 others at a camp inside Ecuadoran territory. Relations between the two countries became further strained after the Colombian defense ministry disclosed on Sunday that one of the bodies recovered at the FARC camp was that of a guerrilla of Ecuadoran nationality named Franklin Aisalia Molina.
Salvador led her country's delegation at a meeting of foreign ministers at the Organization of American States (OAS) headquarters in Washington last week. Before boarding a flight home to Quito, Salvador spoke with NEWSWEEK's Joseph Contreras. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: You and other officials of the Correa government have voiced satisfaction with the resolution that was adopted at the OAS meeting, but nowhere does the text actually condemn the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe for the March 1 incursion.
SALVADOR: The fact that the word condemn doesn't appear in the text of the resolution is of no importance. If you read the contents of the resolution, there is an affirmation that Ecuador's sovereignty was violated, and there is an implicit condemnation in the expressed rejection of that incursion.
Some analysts say the real winner in this entire affair has been Uribe, whose armed forces inflicted a severe blow against the FARC rebels without having to pay a particularly high diplomatic price.
This wasn't a battle or a competition between Ecuador and Colombia. Ecuador was the victim of aggression from another country, and at the recent summit of the Rio Group [of Latin American countries], President Uribe was forced to shake hands with President Correa on account of the massive support that was given to Ecuador. We have accepted President Uribe's apologies and his pledge that operations like the March 1 incursion will not be repeated.
So you believe the word of Alvaro Uribe?
What Colombia did on March 1 has totally shattered the trust that Ecuador placed in Colombia, and it's now Colombia's turn to demonstrate that his word is valid and regain the trust that has been lost.
What do you think of the role the United States has played in this episode?
We can understand the very clear support that the U.S. has given to the position of Colombia, even though we don't justify it. The U.S. is backing a country in the region with which it has had extensive ties for many years in antidrug and counterterrorist activities.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez sent troops to the Colombian border at the height of the diplomatic crisis and used very bellicose language to condemn the Uribe government. Do you approve of his behavior in all this?
Venezuela sent troops to its border with Colombia as a gesture of support [for Ecuador]. What is worth noting is the solidarity expressed not only by the government of Venezuela but by the majority of governments in the region. They have demonstrated the importance of having a system of legality to combat illegality.
Is this chapter now closed?
We've had recourse to the mechanisms established by international law, and in that respect we are satisfied with what has been achieved until now.
Earlier this week Colombian officials leaked a photo showing the late FARC rebel commander Raul Reyes meeting with a man who was identified by a leading Bogotá newspaper as your cabinet colleague Security Minister Gustavo Larrea. The man in the picture turned out to be a prominent Argentine communist. What do you make of that?
The propaganda campaign that was initiated by Colombia to discredit the government of Ecuador and specific officials like President Correa by linking them to the FARC has been very painful for us, and we have energetically rejected it. This entire campaign is an effort to tarnish the government of Ecuador with the aim of justifying the aggression that Ecuador suffered at the hands of Colombia, but it is collapsing under its own weight.
Will you recommend the restoration of diplomatic relations with Bogotá, or might that be a bit premature?
I don't wish to speak about a particular date, because that's a commitment I cannot undertake. At the Rio Group summit Uribe apologized to Ecuador and vowed never to repeat the act of aggression. We hope that Uribe's word is solid, but we are also looking for some gesture by Colombia to facilitate the restoration of diplomatic relations.