Field trip?

While initial reports on the Colombian rocket attack on the FARC encampment in Ecuador mentioned a Mexican — Lucía Morett Àlvarez — among the survivors, it’s now reported that up to ten Mexicans were among the twenty casualties.

There are two conflicting stories about what the Mexicans were doing in Ecuador. One version has the students attending a Bolivarian Solidarity Conference in Quito or there was a FARC cell in Mexico City, at UNAM. Morett said she did not believe there was anything illegal in visiting FARC leaders in Ecuador — which would bolster Colombian claims that the Ecuadorians knew FARC had a base in their country. At the same time, the Colombian vice-president claims that Mexican and Chilean students were being trained and armed. And that there is a FARC “terrorist cell” operating in Mexico City (maybe this is what vice-presidents are supposed to do. I seem to recall that the U.S. vice-president also made claims of wider “terrorist” connections to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq, after initial rationales were universally questioned). Count among those who are dubious the UNAM administration.

So far, Felipe Calderon has called the situation “deplorable” — but he seems to accept the Colombian story that the students (if they were students) were guerrillas.

Ecuador’s claim — that the Colombians (with U.S. support) attacked the camp because the Uribe administration was worried that Ecuadorian and Venezuelan negotiations to release foreign hostages held by FARC were about to bear fruit — is the most widely accepted. The Colombian government is widely seen as involved in human rights abuses and narcotics trafficking itself, ignoring right-wing death squads and narcotics dealing “terrorist” groups (and, in some cases, complicit in their activities), using the U.S. military equipment to fight leftists, and not narcotics traders.

So far, Mexico seems to be taking a “wait and see” attitude. I’ve seen nothing from the Mexican left condemning Colombia at this point, other than the expected anti-Colombian protests. Calderon and Uribe met briefly but there is no word on their discussions.

So far, Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua have broken relations with Colombia, with Chile, Brazil and Argentina all supporting Ecuador. France and China also seem to be backing Ecuador, with only the United States in Colombia’s corner. Anything could tip Mexican neutrality —