Ecuador denies media reports that the bombing of a farm near the Colombian border was a ‘PR stunt’

Ecuador’s Defense Ministry claimed Thursday that international news media reports critical of a March 3 bombing raid on a farm near the Colombian border were “a gross distortion the facts.” Although the bombing raid was carried out by the Ecuadorian military, the target was identified by United States military intelligence.

A farmer pets a pig standing amidst the rubble after a bomb was dropped by the Ecuadorian army in San Martin, Sucumbios Province, on March 4.

According to a joint statement by the ministry and the U.S. Southern Command following the bombing, the farm was a training and resting center of the Comandos de la Frontera, a Colombia-based drug trafficking group.

Journalists from the New York Times, USA Today and other media outlets visited the bomb site in recent days and dispute the military description, reporting that the target appears to be a working farm with no indication of a drug trafficking connection. “What we found were destroyed farm buildings with dozens of farm animals wandering through the wreckage,” said independent British journalist Tom Herrington. “Everyone we talked to for miles around confirmed its status as a farm with no connection to drug criminals.”

Neighbors also questioned the bombing raid, pointing out that the farmhouse and outbuildings had been burned to the ground by soldiers before the bombs fell. “The evidence on the ground is that the bombing was public relations stunt, a photo op, and was entirely unnecessary for security purposes,” Says Herrington.

A retired Ecuadorian army commander who owns property near the bomb site in San Martin and who asked not to be identified told Herrington that the bombing was a staged media event. “Besides the helicopter that dropped the explosives, there was another helicopter with soldiers taking pictures and videos of the event,” he said.

Reporters for the New York Times told a similar story. “The workers at the farm said that Ecuadorian soldiers arrived by helicopter on March 3, doused several structures with gasoline and set them on fire after interrogating the workers and beating four of them with the butts of their weapons,” the newspaper reported. “Three workers claimed they were then strangled and subjected to electric shocks before being released.”

Ecuador Interior Minister John Reimberg reacted angrily to the news reports, claiming the farm was a “front” for the Comandos de la Frontera. “The operation was carried based on intelligence of the U.S. military command who provided proof of the use of the facility,” he said. “All of these after-the-fact news reports do not present an accurate picture of what occurred.” He added: “We trust absolutely the U.S. intelligence reports.”

At a press conference, Reimberg displayed a semiautomatic rifle he said was recovered at the farm and said several members of the Border Commandos were captured in ground operations before the bombing raid.

Mario Pazmiño, a retired colonel and former director of intelligence for Ecuador’s Army, agreed with reporters that the farm was probably not a drug trafficking headquarters. “It appears that the target was misidentified and was in fact simply agricultural location,” he said.

“What the army did was attack that house, or farm, and destroy it in its totality,” Pazmiño said. “And then they bombed it.”