Ecuador will respond with force to any armed incursion

Lt. Maldonado was honored in his funeral

The statement was made by President Rafael Correa yesterday, during his Saturday broadcast in Machachi, south of Quito, adding that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were the military group that murdered Diego Maldonado last Thursday.

Correa asked the FARC to understand that “their struggle” has lost all meaning. “What are you doing? You just killed a 28-year-old Ecuadorian soldier who leaves an orphaned girl of only three years old. What social justice are you talking about?,” Said the president, while warning that the Government will respond with force “to any group that dares to penetrate  the Ecuadorian soil under irregular conditions.”

Yesterday, the president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, promised military support in the border. “Be absolutely sure that you will have all the support of our army, our armed forces, so that in this border that kind of situation does not happen again.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the FARC said yesterday that they have not received any information from their members. “We still do not have a statement of the Southern Bloc“, Jesus Santrich told the reporters, a member of the delegation that is negotiating peace with the Colombian government in La Habana.

“Yes, it is worth to reflect (for this) in the sense that unfortunately the Colombian conflict at certain times tends to get carried out…” said Santrich.

Meanwhile, yesterday was the funeral of Lieutenant Diego Maldonado Gomez,  which was performed at the Coliseo Centenario in Cayambe, his hometown. Poems of military pride and interpretation of various sanjuanitos, of which Maldonado enjoyed, filled his farewell.