Colombia sprays herbicide to eradicate coca
The Colombian authorities said on Monday that the first part of a herbicide spraying campaign in areas that border Ecuador to eradicate coca, the plant used to make cocaine, had finished.

"We have ended the first part of our activities on the border with Ecuador," said Gen. Jorge Baron, head of Colombia's Anti-Narcotics Police, without specifying the acreage of crops that had been eradicated.

He added that the second spraying program to eradicate coca was continuing on the same day in the areas that had illegal coca cultivations and on the borders with Brazil and Peru, in line with a government announcement a few days ago.

Baron said that spraying would continue as long as drug trafficking financed terrorism and armed rebels in Colombia.

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said on Sunday that Colombia would spray crops close to the Peru frontier with the support of Peru's president, Alan Garcia.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's decision to resume the herbicide spraying campaign in early December caused a dispute between Colombia and Ecuador, which said the spraying of herbicide would be toxic to humans, animals and plants.

Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, agreed with his Colombian counterpart to send a commission on the spraying, backed by the Organization of American States (OAS), to the area.

The commission will monitor the spraying to make sure that the herbicide does not reach Ecuador and study how the herbicide affects human health.

Correa sent his complaints to the OAS, pledging that Ecuador would halt Colombian spraying through diplomatic ways.

The two nations share 586 km of border, an area frequently crossed by rebel troops. The Colombian government said that the spraying was being done to prevent rebel groups from receiving funds from the coca crops grown in the area, which is used in the production of cocaine.