Colombia's Executive has accused Ecuador's president, Daniel Noboa, of interfering in the Colombian elections this Sunday after announcing the suppression of the "security tax" tariff applied to imports from Colombia, a decision that comes after an agreement with the far-right presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella. At the same time, Bogotá has indicated that it will also lift the levies imposed on Ecuadorian products.
At the heart of this commercial dispute between the two countries lie the marked ideological differences between Noboa and the outgoing president of Colombia, the leftist Gustavo Petro, as well as the alleged passivity of the Colombian authorities in the fight against drug trafficking, according to the Ecuadorian president himself.
During the same announcement, and to further emphasize his alignment with the right-wing De la Espriella, Noboa pledged to reach bilateral agreements with the far-right candidate and leader of Defensores de la Patria should he win the elections.
For the Colombian Government, Noboa's gesture conceals an "deceptive" background despite its appearance of "goodwill," since, firstly, it is "the result of the peremptory orders to eliminate these tariffs issued by the General Secretariat of the Andean Community (CAN)" and, secondly, it constitutes "a deliberate interference in the ongoing electoral process in Colombia."
"This intrusion by a foreign leader into the democratic development of another State constitutes a flagrant violation of the principle of non-intervention in internal affairs, a threat to national sovereignty, and an attack on the democratic system," the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned in a statement released this Saturday.
Nevertheless, and "in coherence with the announced normalization of commercial conditions" and "with the purpose of fully restoring symmetry in bilateral economic relations," Colombia "will also proceed to repeal the measures adopted to mitigate the distortions generated by the restrictions implemented by Ecuador, thus reaffirming its commitment to intra-community free trade, Andean integration, and the strengthening of the relationship between the two States."