The leaders of Colombia and Ecuador on Tuesday sparred over allegations that the Ecuadoran bombing of suspected criminal hideouts near their shared border had spilled into Colombian territory.
Months of tension between Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa spiked on Monday when Petro alleged that an explosive was dropped from a plane near the border.
On Tuesday, Petro posted on X a photograph of an unexploded “bomb” that he said had fallen on the border between Colombia and Ecuador.
Photo: AFP
He called for a thorough investigation, saying: “It fell 100 meters from the home of a poor family.”
“It’s a bomb that can only be — I don’t want to say fired, but maybe dropped without intending to fire it — from a plane,” Petro said during a speech on Tuesday, adding that it “was not from a small plane, much less a drone.”
Experts said the munition is believed to be a “freefall bomb” that is not guided, falling by the force of gravity.
A Colombian armed forces spokesperson told reporters that bomb disposal teams successfully deactivated the device on Tuesday night.
Local farmers speaking with reporters corroborated Petro’s account.
“We were all terrified — you know, scared — and worried that those devices might suddenly explode and take our lives,” farmer Julian Imbacuan told reporters by phone.
Colombian Minister of National Defense Pedro Sanchez implored residents to avoid the area, announcing later on Tuesday that troops had been deployed there.
Noboa on Tuesday wrote on X that Ecuador is “currently bombing locations that served as hideouts” for criminal groups that are “largely Colombian, and which your government allowed to infiltrate our country due to negligence regarding your border.”
“President Petro, your statements are false,” Noboa said. “We are operating within our own territory, not yours.”
Petro said that “there are 27 charred bodies and Noboa’s explanation is not credible,” without specifying if he was referring to recent casualties.
Reporters contacted the army, which was unable to clarify Petro’s comment.
Colombia and Ecuador share a 586km border, along which Colombian guerrilla groups and criminal organizations from both countries operate.
They engage in the trafficking of drugs, weapons and people, as well as illegal mining.
The countries faced a similar rise in tensions in 2008 when then-Colombian president Alvaro Uribe ordered a strike on Ecuadoran soil to take out a guerilla commander.
Ecuador recently began anti-drug operations with US support and also joined the “Shield of the Americas,” a 17-nation coalition set up by US President Donald Trump this month to combat drug trafficking in the region.
Colombia is not in the group.
About 70 percent of the cocaine produced in Colombia and Peru — the world’s largest producers of the drug — transits through Ecuador to be exported via its Pacific ports.
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