BOGOTA: Ecuador has severed diplomatic ties with Colombia and Venezuela expelled all Colombian diplomats in an escalating regional crisis sparked by a cross-border raid against Marxist rebels.

The diplomatic moves came as Colombia accused both its neighbours on Monday of colluding with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) — which has been waging a four-decade guerrilla war against the government in Bogota.

Ecuador angrily rejected the allegations and severed diplomatic relations, citing “a succession of events and unfriendly accusations”.

Venezuela ordered the immediate expulsion of Colombia’s ambassador and embassy staff, “in defence of homeland sovereignty and the dignity of the Venezuelan people”.

Bogota said computer records seized from a FARC camp inside Ecuador proved the allegations of collusion, and said it would present the evidence to the United Nations and the Organisation of American States (OAS).

Colombia’s cross-border raid on the rebel camp on Saturday, which killed FARC’s number two commander Raul Reyes, triggered the current crisis with Venezuela and Ecuador responding by massing troops on their borders with Colombia.

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa late on Monday said the Colombian raid had blocked “advanced stage” negotiations with FARC for the release of 11 hostages, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.

The handover was set to take place in Ecuador sometime in March, Correa claimed. FARC has released six hostages to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in two separate operations so far this year.

But Colombia immediately rejected the claim, saying the documents it seized from FARC computers revealed a deal taking shape that allowed for joint decisions with rebel commanders and FARC recruiting in Ecuador.

“What the documents show looks more like trafficking in hostages for political ends,” a Colombian government statement said.

Bogota said the seized information showed contacts between Reyes and Ecuadoran Interior Minister Gustavo Larrea that suggested “a connivance, a sort of association between the government of Ecuador and the guerrillas.” Ecuador and Venezuela strongly denied having ties to the FARC, which is regarded as a “terrorist organisation” by Colombia, the United States and the European Union for its tactics of making money from kidnappings and drug trafficking.

Chavez, a socialist firebrand ideologically sympathetic to the Marxist-inspired FARC, ordered some 6,000 troops, tanks and warplanes to the border and warning Colombia of “war” if it tried a raid into Venezuelan territory.

The United States said it supported Bogota’s offensive against the “terrorist” guerillas but called for resolving regional tensions through diplomacy.

Colombian police chief Gen Oscar Naranjo said Venezuela was implicated through a record of a payments totalling $300 million to the rebels from Chavez.

He also told reporters the data suggested the rebels had acquired 50 kilograms of uranium.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin shot back calling Colombia’s accusations “absolute fabrications,” adding that Reyes’ computers were being manipulated by Colombia to justify a “preventive war” against Venezuela.

Larrea in Quito admitted meeting with Reyes in January to talk “exclusively about the hostage issue,” he told reporters.—AFP