Ros-Lehtinen criticizes Venezuela, Ecuador

by Pablo Bachelet

Florida Republican lawmakers said on Monday that Venezuela and Ecuador should stop harboring Colombian FARC guerrillas in their territories and tone down their attacks on Bogotá.

''Rather than rattle sabers,'' Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said, ``Colombia's neighbors need to play a more constructive role in bringing about a durable peace and removing FARC foreign sanctuaries that have been exposed by this operation.''

Colombia bombed a FARC camp Saturday, killing a top guerrilla leader known as Raúl Reyes. Both Ecuador and Colombia have dispatched troops to the border.

''In his long and deadly career as a drug dealer and kidnapper, Raúl Reyes has been responsible for the unspeakable suffering of tens of thousands of people, including long-held hostages from Colombia, the United States and Venezuela,'' Ros-Lehtinen said.

Florida Republican Rep. Connie Mack also sharply criticized Ecuador and Venezuela.

''Unfortunately, the FARC have an ally in Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez,'' he said. He called Ecuador ``little more than a pawn of the Chávez regime.''

Mack also branded Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Cuba as ''the Latin American axis of tyranny'' poised to ``disrupt all of Latin America.''