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Moreno calls Combifron after terrorist attack in Mataje
Posted On 21 Mar 2018
Ecuadornews:
The Government of Ecuador today urgently called a meeting of the Binational Border Commission (Combifron) with Colombia and the top heads of the Diplomacy and Defense of the two countries, to analyze the situation after the terrorist attack with explosives that left three soldiers killed in Mataje, border area with Colombia.
Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno, on a national television network, also promised to carry out operations to find and capture those who perpetrated the attack.
“I have arranged for the Foreign Ministry to immediately activate the corresponding mechanisms, convening the Binational Border Commission and the ministers of the Security and Foreign Affairs area of Colombia and Ecuador,” Moreno announced.
The possibility of convening Combifron, an organization created by both countries to address security problems on the common border, was also communicated today by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who also expressed his solidarity with Ecuador.
“With the president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, we will immediately implement the actions agreed upon in the Binational Cabinet held in Pereira (Colombian city) last February,” Moreno added.
“Together, as brother countries, we must fight organized crime,” he stressed and did not hesitate to describe as “criminal” today’s attack in Esmeraldas.
Moreno said that the attack with a homemade explosive, surely, is due to the operations that the Ecuadorian authorities have undertaken in the border area against organized crime and that have yielded “important results.
“Since last year we began operations with the mobilization of more than 12,000 troops on the border and 2,734 operations to ensure the safety of the compatriots living in this area and to combat transnational crime,” he said.
According to Moreno, these operations have affected the criminal structures that operate in the area, with blows such as the seizure of chemical precursors, supplies and drugs worth an estimated 600 million dollars.
But that effect is evident, “above all, with the capture of 14 members linked to these criminal organizations,” the president said.
“Actions like these will continue and be deepened,” he added and promised the criminals: “We are going to look for them, we are going to capture them and they will regret their criminal actions.”
“Our State policy is to guarantee sovereignty and citizen peace,” he added, adding that he has arranged for institutions such as the Ministries of the Interior, Defense, Economic and Social Inclusion, and Education, among others, to “move immediately.” to the conflict zone to provide all the necessary support. ”
The president also asked the media to treat this type of issue with great care and criticized the fact that social networks have published photographs that could be disrespectful to the victims or their families.
He thanked the Armed Forces and the Police for the “exemplary and professional work that they deploy to guarantee the sovereignty of the territory, security and peace”.
“We have always been and will continue to be a country of peace,” concluded the Ecuadorian president. (I)
