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| Caribbean-Latin America | |
| Ecuador emerges as hub for international crime | |
| 2010-02-05 | |
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the inter-governmental body responsible for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, is expected at its meeting in February in Abu Dhabi to include Ecuador on its high-risk jurisdiction list at the request of G20 finance ministers. The officials and analysts say concern about Ecuador has been mounting since an Ecuadorian government investigation revealed in December that the drug trafficking Revolutionary Army of Colombia (FARC) possessed an extensive network in Ecuador that includes some of President Rafael Correa's closest aides and may have allowed the guerrillas to partially fund his 2006 election campaign. FARC has been designated a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union. The investigation into a 2008 Colombian bombardment of a jungle camp on Ecuadorian territory, in which the FARC's second-in-command Raul Reyes was killed, relied heavily on 600 gigabytes of data found in computers and hard drives in the destroyed camp and authenticated by Interpol. Correa has denounced the investigation, which he initiated. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 Been hearing more and more about Ecuador lately. It is part of the South American chain - such as a domino. |
| Posted by: newc 2010-02-05 12:26 |