It’s been a tense week in the Andes. On Saturday, Colombian forces launched a surprise raid on a camp inside the Ecuador border and killed a senior FARC member. The result has been an ongoing diplomatic kerfuffle between Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela.
AFP has a run-down of the events: “Regional tensions rise after Colombia raid into Ecuador.”
And the NY Times‘s Simon Romero narrates a video report about the incident.
Meanwhile, Bolivia expert Miguel Centellas discusses a Bolivian dimension to the story.
Reuters has some analysis on the political implications for the region: “Andean crisis shakes hopes for regional unity.”
And as for Thailand…
Today we learned that a Russian man alleged to be a notorious arms dealer was arrested here in Thailand yesterday. He is accused of selling arms to al Qaeda and the Taliban, and he was lured to Bangkok by American DEA agents…posing as FARC members looking to buy weapons.