Colombia’s Uribe accuses Managua of sheltering terrorists

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has accused Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega of harboring “terrorists,” in reference to alleged members of a Colombia guerrilla group to whom Managua offered asylum after they survived a Colombian military attack in March.

“When an Ecuadorean judge ruled that they (the alleged Colombian guerrillas) should be captured as terrorists, the government you’re talking about (Nicaragua) gives them asylum. It sent a plane to pick them up and deceived (everyone). It lied,” Uribe told reporters.

The accusation was a shot back after heavy criticism from Managua over Uribe’s intensions with leftist guerrilla group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Ortega last week called the U.S.-backed Colombian leader a “terrorist” for ordering the bombing of a FARC camp in Ecuador, which killed the militant group’s No. 2 chief, Raúl Reyes, more than 20 guerrilla soldiers and university students.

Three young women, Martha Pérez, Doris Torres and Lucía Morett, survived and are now living under Nicaragua’s protection.

“He says he’s fighting terrorism but he’s the terrorist,” left-winger Ortega said, according to Reuters.