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Raid leads to South American standoff
* Story Highlights
* Troops in Ecuador, Venezuela being sent to Colombian border after raid
* Colombia: Papers show Ecuador had interest in formalizing relations with FARC
* Ecuadoran government spokesman reportedly denies Colombian accusations
(CNN) -- Troops from Ecuador and Venezuela have been ordered toward their borders with Colombia amid a tense crisis that threatens to erupt into war.
The leftist presidents of Ecuador and Venezuela ordered the troop movements in response to a raid by the rightist Colombian government that killed a top Colombian rebel on Ecuadoran soil.
The tension deepened Sunday night, when the director of Colombia's national police force revealed evidence that he said showed links between Ecuador's government and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which has fought to overthrow the Colombian government for 40 years.
He said Colombia obtained the evidence from computers it seized after killing the senior FARC leader.
Developments in the northern part of South America have unfolded at a rapid pace since Saturday, when the Colombian police and military killed the FARC's second-in-command, Luis Edgar Devia Silva, known as "Raul Reyes." The Colombian government described it as the most significant blow yet against the rebels.
Colombia says its police and air force attacked targets in Colombia and shot back only after its forces came under fire from FARC rebels about a mile inside Ecuador.
Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos denied that Colombia violated Ecuadoran airspace, but the presidents of Ecuador and Venezuela disputed that and assailed the raid as an infringement of Ecuador's sovereignty.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered 10 battalions of troops to the Colombian border Sunday and closed Venezuela's embassy in the Colombian capital of Bogota. He said Venezuela would have declared war on Colombia if Colombian troops had attacked targets on Venezuelan soil.
Chavez called the attack "a cowardly murder" that was "coldly prepared." He pledged to support Ecuador and blamed the United States -- a close ally of Colombia and its president, Alvaro Uribe.
"We don't want war, but we will not allow the North American empire -- which is the master -- and its sub-President [Alvaro] Uribe and the Colombian oligarchy to divide, to weaken us," he said. "We will not allow it."
Chavez called Uribe a "liar," a "criminal" and a "gangster." VideoWatch what led to attack »
In a televised address on Sunday night, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador called the raid by Colombian police and warplanes a "massacre" that killed numerous civilians.
"There is not any justification for foreign military action in our territory," Correa said.
He withdrew Ecuador's ambassador to Colombia, expelled Colombia's ambassador to Ecuador and ordered troops toward the Colombian frontier.
He said he planned to meet with his national security advisers Monday, and that a simple apology from Colombia will not suffice.
"We demand signed and formal promises made before the international community that will guarantee that these unacceptable actions will not be repeated," Correa said.
The attack killed Reyes -- a member of the seven-man FARC leadership council known as the general secretariat -- and another leading FARC figure, Guillermo Enrique Torres or "Julian Conrado," who was a key ideologue.
Correa said Saturday that Uribe told him the incident occurred during as Colombian troops were in hot pursuit of a FARC column. Yet his troops learned, he said, that Colombian planes had struck the rebels as they slept in a camp about a mile inside Ecuador.
"Of course Ecuadoran airspace was invaded," he said.
Colombian ground forces crossed into Ecuador and retrieved Reyes' body, leaving the others, he said.
"We will not permit this outrage ... the situation is extremely grave and the Ecuadoran government is disposed to go to the ultimate consequences," he said.
He accused Colombia on Sunday night of "lying to Ecuador and the world."
Correa spoke Sunday with the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Spain, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela "to share with them the gravity of the situation," he said.
Correa and Chavez are ideological allies -- two of several leftist presidents who have been elected in Latin America in recent years. They stand on the opposite side of the political spectrum from Uribe, a rightist president with close ties to the United States.
Chavez is an outspoken U.S. foe who relied on his leftist credentials to help secure the recent release of six of roughly 750 hostages the FARC holds. Many have been held for years in harsh conditions in the South American jungle.
FARC justifies hostage-taking as a legitimate military tactic in a long-running and complex civil war that also has involved right-wing paramilitaries, government forces and drug traffickers.
In Washington, the White House said Sunday that it was monitoring the situation. Spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, "This is an odd reaction by Venezuela to Colombia's efforts against the FARC, a terrorist organization that continues to hold Colombians, Americans and others hostage."
In addition to the United States, the European Union and Colombia also label the FARC a terrorist organization.
Adding to the complexity of a delicate situation was news late Sunday that the Colombian forces who attacked the FARC on Saturday recovered three computers from the rebel camp.
The Colombian director of national police, Oscar Naranjo, said the computers contained "tremendously revealing" documents showing Ecuadoran overtures to the FARC, which Colombia considers a "very grave" move that affects its security.
Naranjo said some documents recovered on the computer describe "links of the FARC particularly with the government of President Correa" of Ecuador. He said the documents appear to have been written by Reyes to other senior FARC leaders.
The documents show that Ecuador's minister of security met recently with Reyes, Naranjo said, and that Ecuador had "an interest in formalizing relations with the FARC," Naranjo said, according to an account published on a Colombian government Web site.
An Ecuadoran government spokesman told The Associated Press that the Colombian claims were a lie.
Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
Something to keep a close eye on in the next few days. I have a weird gut feeling that this is going to boil over in a hurry...
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