BOGOTA — Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa rejected allegations Monday that his country bombed targets in neighboring Colombia. Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused Ecuador of bombing targets on Colombia's side of the border on Monday.

"We are being bombed from Ecuador, and it's not rebel groups who are doing it," said President Gustavo Petro. Petro said a bomb had been found by Colombian officials.

"We are fighting narco terrorism in all its forms and bombing places that serve as hideouts for those groups, of which many are Colombian, but only within Ecuadorian territory," said President Daniel Noboa.

Relations have deteriorated between Colombia and Ecuador, two neighboring nations that were once close commercial and security partners. In January, Noboa imposed a 30% tariff on Colombian imports, later raising the tariff to 50%. Noboa said that Colombia had not done enough to stop drug traffickers and rebel groups from crossing into Ecuador.

Noboa said the tariffs, which he called a "security tax," will not be lifted until Colombia takes firmer actions against criminal groups. The Colombian government responded to Ecuador's tariffs by imposing its own duties on Ecuadorian goods. Petro denied accusations that his government is not acting against drug traffickers who ship Colombian cocaine out of Ecuadorian ports.

Noboa has struggled to reduce drug violence in Ecuador. The homicide rate in Ecuador has quintupled over the past five years. The government imposed a nightly curfew in four provinces to combat crime.

Recently, the Ecuadorian government and U.S. forces conducted a joint operation against a drug traffickers camp near Ecuador's border with Colombia, deploying drones, helicopters and river boats. Petro has attempted to stage peace talks with Colombia's remaining rebel groups under a strategy known as total peace.

Noboa is conservative. Petro is a leftist. Petro was a member of a rebel group in his youth. The FARC guerrilla group made a peace deal with Colombia's government in 2016. Colombia is preparing for presidential elections in May.