2008 Andean diplomatic crisis
  
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| Angostura raid | |
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| Location |
Near Santa Rosa de Yanamaru, Sucumbíos, Ecuador 00°22′37″N 77°07′48″W / 0.37694°N 77.13000°W |
| Target | Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia |
| Date | March 1, 2008 00:25 (UTC–5) |
| Executed by | Colombian Armed Forces |
| Casualties | 24 killed |
The 2008 Andean diplomatic crisis was a diplomatic stand-off between the South American countries of Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. It began with an incursion into Ecuadorian territory across the Putumayo River by the Colombian military on March 1, 2008, leading to the deaths of over twenty militants, including Raúl Reyes (nom-de-guerre of Luis Edgar Devia Silva) and sixteen other members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). This incursion led to increased tension between Colombia and Ecuador and the movement of Venezuelan and Ecuadorian troops to their borders with Colombia.
A military and diplomatic row intensified, ambassadors were recalled and arrests made worldwide following the seizure by the Colombians from the FARC camp of laptop computers that the Colombian military found to contain a large quantity of letters and documents pertaining to FARC activities and its relationship with the Ecuadorian and Venezuelan governments.
The immediate crisis was ended at a Rio Group summit on March 7, 2008, with a public reconciliation between the three countries involved.
In 2007, Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan President and Piedad Córdoba, a Colombian Senator, were acting as authorised mediators in the ongoing Humanitarian Exchange negotiations between the FARC and the government of Colombia. The Colombian President, Álvaro Uribe, had given Chávez permission to mediate, under the condition that all meetings with the FARC would take place in Venezuela and that Chávez would not contact members of the Colombian military directly, but instead go through the proper diplomatic channels. However, President Uribe of Colombia abruptly terminated the Venezuelan president's mediation efforts on November 22, 2007, after President Chávez personally contacted General Mario Montoya Uribe, the Commander of the Colombian National Army. In response to this, Chávez said that he was still willing to mediate but had withdrawn Venezuela's ambassador to Colombia and placed Colombian-Venezuelan relations "in a freezer". He also called Uribe a "liar and a cynic". President Uribe of Colombia responded to this by saying that Colombia needed "mediation against terrorism, not [for Chávez] to legitimise terrorism," and that Chávez was not interested in bringing about peace in Colombia but instead, was engaged in an expansionist project in the region. From January to February 2008, FARC released six hostages "as a gesture of goodwill" toward Chávez, who had brokered the deal, and Chávez sent Venezuelan helicopters with Red Cross logos into the Colombian jungle to pick up the freed hostages.
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