Bad to worse with Colombia
Ecuador has long been irritated with Colombia's hot pursuit of guerrilla suspects into Ecuador and coca spraying along the border. Colombia's high-handed response to Ecuador's frequent complaints tends to irritate the government in Quito, particularly Correa's, which is prickly at the best of times and has made the permanent cessation of Colombia's use of herbicide in the border area a major goal.
Both Ecuador and Colmbia's foreign ministers are waiting for the publication of a joint report into the effects of glysophate on the local population. The report's findings, however, may not settle the issue. Colombia will be reluctant to suspend an effective method of coca eradication, though as US funding has been cut it may prove prohibitively expensive.
Espinosa is also waiting for a report from the defence ministry and the army over the death of an Ecuadorean at the hands of the Colombian army on 22 June. The Ecuadorean who was killed just over the border in Putumayo (along with three Colombians), Marcos Quesada, was a simple farmer, his family says. Quesada's family claims that the Colombian army killed him.
The Colombian army claims that the four people it killed were guerrillas for the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and they died in a firefight with soldiers. Relations deteriorated further when an Ecuadorean TV crew investigating Quesada's death was detained by the Colombian army and then expelled.
In an interview with the Spanish newsagency Efe on 5 July, Correa sought to play up his magnanimous attitude towards Colombia. "The Colombian people are our brothers, the Colombian government is a brother and friend, but between brothers there can be abuses and we believe that Colombia has been abusing Ecuador for a while now." Correa said Colombia's failure to tackle the security situation on the border meant that Ecuador has had to station 11,000 soldiers and police on its northern border, at an annual cost of US$120m, "an immense cost for a country like Ecuador". But, he added, the Ecuadorean government was prepared "to draw a line under this", and the first step towards the normalisation of relations was this scientific report into the effects of glysophate.
Peruvian friends
In Lima, meanwhile, on 6 July, Peru and Ecuador took "concrete steps to cement the fraternity and brotherhood" between the two nations, according to Peruvian President Alan García. The defence and foreign ministers of both countries met for their first "2 + 2" meeting, aimed at promoting development in the border region. The ministers also agreed to accept international cooperation to remove landmines from the border area, following the 30-day war which took place in the Condor mountain range from 26 January to 28 February 1995. This was the third, and final, war fought between Peru and Ecuador in the 20th Century.
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