The tension between Ecuador and Colombia escalated again this April 29, when President Daniel Noboa accused his counterpart Gustavo Petro of promoting the incursion of guerrilla members from the northern border; The Colombian responded by pointing out that he is trying to "attack the elections." The accusations occur in the midst of the intense trade war between both countries and just over a month before the elections in Colombia.

First modification: 04/30/2026 - 05:10Last modification: 04/30/2026 - 05:36

This April 29, social networks once again became a battlefield for differences between Daniel Noboa and Gustavo Petro, although this time the Colombian president initially tried to contain the escalation.

Right-wing President Daniel Noboa began the exchange, accusing left-wing leader Gustavo Petro of promoting the entry into Ecuador of Colombian guerrilla groups through the northern border.

"Several sources have informed us of an incursion along the northern border by Colombian guerrillas, promoted by the Petro Government," said Noboa, who has already accused the Colombian president of neglecting the border and of being linked to drug trafficker José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias 'Fito'.

"President Petro, dedicate yourself to improving the lives of your people instead of wanting to export problems to neighboring countries," added Noboa, without providing evidence or details about the exact point of the supposed guerrilla displacement.

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This time Petro, who has threatened Noboa with legal action for his allegations about the alleged relationship with 'Fito', preferred to avoid confrontation in his initial response and invited Noboa to meet.

"Go to the northern border and meet me and we will build peace in those territories, stop believing lies," Petro invited, in an unusual effort to ease tensions instead of fueling them.

However, shortly afterward he published a photograph in

Later he added: “We are facing an extreme right-wing effort to fill the polls with fear and we fill them with hope.”

In the same publication, Petro maintained that “in Colombia there are no guerrillas, there are armed drug trafficking groups,” and then added: “We know that weapons and explosives enter through the Ecuadorian border destined for the drug traffickers' fronts in Cauca (a turbulent region in southwestern Colombia).”

Consequently, he ordered a “lock plan” – as he calls the reinforcement of the military presence – in Cali, Jamundí and Palmira (near Cauca), to “prevent the entry of weapons.”

Read alsoDifferences between Colombia and Ecuador will reach court: Petro announces lawsuit against Noboa

A story with many chapters

The confrontation between Petro and Noboa began with the Ecuadorian's accusations that his colleague had neglected security on the border, which would have been, according to him, the seed of the rise in criminal violence that has forced the decree of curfews in nine Ecuadorian provinces.

This statement was accompanied by the decision to impose a 30% tariff on Colombian products, as a form of trade retaliation. After Petro responded with similar measures, Noboa has raised taxes on imports from the neighboring country to 100%.

The differences worsened when Ecuador began joint operations alongside US forces, which have included bombings against alleged criminal gang camps near the common border.

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Petro complained that a projectile launched from Ecuador had left “27 charred bodies” in the department of Putumayo, but the Colombian Institute of Legal Medicine could only verify 14 victims, who would have died in the fire of a clandestine drug laboratory in another department, that of Nariño, and not as a result of a bombing.

Tensions continued with a request from Petro to release former Ecuadorian president Jorge Glas, who was extracted from the Mexican embassy (where he had requested asylum), in a controversial operation that caused relations between Mexico City and Quito to cool.

The Colombian president assured that Ecuador was “letting the Colombian citizen” Glas die of hunger, whom he considered a political prisoner, to which Noboa responded that the former official of Rafael Correa's Government was “a corrupt person who must answer to Ecuador.”

Noboa then offered some controversial statements to the Colombian magazine 'Semana', in which he stated that when Petro was in Ecuador on the occasion of his inauguration, in May 2025, he made a "mysterious" trip to Manta in which "he met with members of the Citizen Revolution, and some of those members have ties to alias 'Fito'."

He was referring to the political movement led by Correa and the leader of the oldest criminal gang in Ecuador, the 'Choneros', and extradited to the United States in June 2025, after he escaped from a prison in Guayaquil.

Petro threatened legal action for what he considered “slander.”

On Monday, April 27, the leftist leader asked the Armed Forces to investigate whether the explosives used in the attack that left 21 dead on the Pan-American highway, in the department of Cauca, on April 25 came from Ecuador.

Petro cited “sources” who tell him that “in general the explosives that arrive at the Cauca fronts from the drug trafficking junta come from Ecuador.”

The FARC dissidents claimed responsibility for the attack, which also left 56 injured, recognizing that it had been "a tactical error" while they were attempting a maneuver against the Army, and the Colombian Police announced the capture of José Alex Vitoncó, alias 'Mi Pez', a leader of the Central General Staff who would be the main suspect in the attack.

Also read Noboa vs. Petro: what is behind your crossed accusations?

An attack against the campaign?

The escalation of tensions finds Colombia at a particularly sensitive moment, just over a month before a general election in which Petro's Historical Pact is risking its permanence in power, with the senator and former facilitator of the peace talks, Iván Cepeda, as its candidate.

Stephanie Macías, political communication strategist, told the 'Ecuavisa' channel that the confrontation between Petro and Noboa has ceased to be "a binational issue" and has become "an electoral platform issue."

Political analyst Andrea Grijalva, in statements to the same Ecuadorian media, stated that the situation constitutes “a blow to the image” of Petro, because it reinforces the criticism that the main right-wing candidates, Paloma Valencia and Abelardo de la Espriella, have made to him “for the handling of the border.”

Petro has denounced: "They want to sabotage the elections so that the extreme right wins out of fear and they use their drug trafficking fronts. It is a hypothesis to be confirmed, but it is increasingly narrower."

Cepeda, for his part, has been "deeply concerned that these terrorist actions occur in southern regions of the country where there is broad citizen support" for his political project.

Read alsoTrade pulse between Ecuador and Colombia: the costs of a tariff war

With EFE and local media

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