Ecuadorian police arrested three Colombians and one Ecuadorian in connection with alleged plans to kill Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, Attorney General Washington Pesantez said on Friday.
Initial reports said the Colombians had links to extreme-right paramilitary groups in their own country. However, Colombian authorities said they were drug traffickers with ties to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
The suspects had allegedly taken photographs from their hotel, very close to the Ecuadorian presidential palace in Quito, and had gathered information about the building’s security. The authorities did not say whether they were armed at the time of the arrest.
Ecuador and Colombia have no diplomatic ties since Colombian forces conducted a cross-border rain onto Ecuadorian territory on March 1 to attack a FARC camp.
The two countries recently agreed to restore ties at the level of charges d’affaires.
Colombia has accused Correa’s government of having given support to FARC rebels. Correa has denied this and has accused Colombia of violating international law.
The Colombian government has offered its help to investigate the alleged plot to kill Correa.
“We are at their disposal. Should Ecuadorian authorities require any kind of cooperation, we will provide it to the full,” Colombian Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo told Colombian radio station Caracol.
However, he said that “there are no more paramilitary groups in Colombia,” after the United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia demobilized over the past years.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
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