Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said on Monday that Colombia's president-elect Juan Manuel Santos could be arrested if he visited Ecuador because of an outstanding warrant against him.An Ecuadorean court ordered Santos' arrest for the 2008 Colombian bombing of a FARC rebel camp in neighboring Ecuador when he was Colombia's defense minister. Diplomatic ties in the Andean region have not fully recovered from the raid.
The leftist Correa told Reuters in an interview in Caracas that the case was in the hands of the independent judiciary and that Santos, who takes office in August, would not be able to go to Ecuador until the issue was resolved.
"It's a shame but he won't be able to do it while the arrest warrant exists and the file is open," Correa said. "The justice system is independent and I can't do anything."