Correa Denied Having Received Money from FARC

Ecuadorian President, Rafael Correa, denied receiving money from the FARC for his campaign in 2006, according to a statement released Wednesday, which referred to an analysis of a computer equipment of former number two of the Colombian guerrilla, Raúl Reyes.

“I haven’t met someone from the FARC in my whole life. I would never have accepted 20 cents from an organization of such nature,” Correa said, quoted by the electronic journal of the presidency of Ecuador.

“If someone on behalf of the campaign of Rafael Correa asked for money, then the FARC were defrauded,” the socialist leader said regarding the report of the UK International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), released on Tuesday in London.

The analysis of computers seized from Reyes after his death in a Colombian bombing territory of Ecuador on March 1, 2008, suggests that “Correa personally requested and accepted illegal funds from the FARC in his first campaign in 2006.”

The resources are estimated at “$ 400 000” (100 000 directly from the FARC and 300 000 from allies), according to the IISS, a private think tank specialized in strategic matters, who received the files from the Colombian government.

Source: AFP