Since the Colombian government bombed a guerrilla camp on Ecuadoran soil on March 1, it has orchestrated a highly effective media campaign backed by material allegedly found on laptops belonging to a high-ranking member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The laptops were used almost immediately after the raid to implicate both the Ecuadoran and Venezuelan governments in drug-trafficking and “terrorist” connections to the FARC. A NACLA investigation sponsored by the Samuel Chavkin Investigative Fund finds that Colombia’s media campaign has been based on dubious evidence at best, and that the “magic laptops” are being used to deflect criticism of Colombia’s violation of Ecuadoran sovereignty, distract the public from a domestic political scandal, and justify the government’s policy of total war against the FARC.

Outside of Ecuador, most progressives consider President Rafael Correa to be a Leftist champion of social and economic justice. Inside the country, however, conflicts between Correa and the social movement Left—the indigenous movement, environmentalists and unions, among others—have become increasingly heated.

The International Police Agency's findings on computer devices the Colombian government says it found at a rebel camp do not ratify the veracity of Bogotá's claims about the devices' contents supposedly linking neighboring governments to Colombian guerrillas. International media have ignored this important fact, while independent experts continue to raise doubts on Interpol's investigation.