The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) on Wednesday approved a resolution which states Colombia violated Ecuador's sovereignty with a cross-border raid to kill a leftist rebel over the weekend. ( dpa )
The text did not include a condemnation of the Colombian military operation Saturday on Ecuadorian soil, but did feature an explicit acknowledgement that Colombia violated Ecuadorian territory.
The raid on Saturday, which claimed the lives of Raul Reyes - second-in-command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) - and some 20 other rebels, has provoked great tension between Colombia, on the one hand, and its neighbours Ecuador and Venezuela.
The resolution also establishes the creation of a commission headed by OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza to look into the incident, although it leaves open whether it is to be an "investigative" commission, as Ecuador wanted, or an "exploratory" commission according to Colombia's wishes.
The text calls for a meeting of OAS foreign ministers on March 17 in Washington.
Late Tuesday, a 10-hour emergency OAS meeting in Washington was suspended without an agreement. Conflict parties continued to exchange accusations, as Ecuador and Venezuela further increased the troop strength along their borders with Colombia.