Ecuadorean President-elect Rafael Correa named an environmentalist as his foreign minister on Wednesday amid growing tensions with neighboring Colombia over the spraying of drug crops. Leftist economist Correa, a friend of anti-US Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who takes office in January, named Maria Espinosa as his chief diplomat. Espinosa is head of the World Conservation Union in South America and an expert in natural reserves who received her masters degree from Rutgers University in the United States.

She faces a tough challenge in securing an extension of a preferential tariff system that the United States gives Andean countries that fight drug trafficking. Last week, the US Congress approved an extension of the tariff program for six months starting in January to Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.

But Correa's refusal to sign a US free trade deal and extend the lease of an air base used by the US military to fight drug smuggling could jeopardize the tariff program. Espinosa also faces a growing dispute with Colombia over the fumigation of drug crops on their border. Correa says herbicides damage legal crops and the health of people who live on the Ecuadorean side of the border.

Ecuador on Wednesday threatened to recall its envoy to Bogota and deport thousands of undocumented Colombian immigrants after the neighboring country resumed fumigation this week after an 11-month suspension.
(Planet Ark, 14/12/2006)