QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuadorean President Rafael  Correa denied yesterday that he ever received funds from  Colombian rebel group FARC, and said a video claiming he did  was “a set up.”

A top FARC leader said in a video aired on Colombian  television on Friday that the guerrillas donated cash to  Correa’s presidential campaign.

During his weekly media address, Correa vehemently denied  that he ever got money from the FARC, which is branded a  terrorist group by Washington, and said the video is part of a  regional bid to destabilize left-leaning governments. “This campaign, is not only taking place in Colombia, it’s  happening in the region, where the right has launched an  attack, and they are using… all the weapons they have, among  them, the media, to destabilize progressive governments,” he  said.

“This is a set up to hurt the country’s image, the image of  the government,” he said.

Correa is part of a group of leftist presidents in Latin  America, including Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in  Bolivia, who are turning their backs on Washington and  implementing reforms to tighten the state’s grip on the  economy.

Correa has called the media “one of the worst enemies” that  leftist Latin American governments face.

The Colombian attorney general’s office said on Friday that  police were investigating the statements in the video by Jorge  Briceno Suarez, known as “Mono Jojoy,” chief military commander  of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its  Spanish initials FARC.