Ecuador Refuses to Renew Lease on U.S. Military Base, NYT Says

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Bloomberg

Ecuador Refuses to Renew Lease on U.S. Military Base, NYT Says

By James Kraus

May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Ecuador declined to renew the U.S. lease on a military base that serves as a critical platform in the fight against narcotics smuggling, the New York Times reported.

The base, at Manta on the Pacific coast, has about 180 military personnel who carry out about 100 flights a month searching for boats carrying drugs from Colombia to the U.S., the newspaper reported.

Colombia supplies about 90 percent of the cocaine brought into the U.S., and flights last year resulted in about 200 cocaine seizures, the Times reported.

The U.S. signed a 10-year lease on the base in 1999 that doesn't require rent for the installation and wasn't submitted to Ecuador's Congress for approval, the Times said. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said the base undermines Ecuador's sovereignty, while others fear that it may draw the country deeper into Colombia's civil war, the newspaper said.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=a2DU_h_iV9mo&refer=latin_america

[Hidey]

1. Probably shouldn't have bombed them huh?

Or "precision guided attacked" them or whatever the term is now.

[Robbien]

2. Sounds good. But

really, does Ecuador have the power to kick out from their country all the thousands of US men with guns and warplanes?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[atreides1]

3. How does 180 military personnel

Become "thousands of US men with guns and warplanes"?


And they use surveillance aircraft not warplanes!

[Judi Lynn]

6. I found an article which claims an estimation of around 475 people stationed there:

China, Ecuador: Beijing's Latin American Opportunity
November 27, 2007 | 1951 GMT

As the highlight of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa’s recent trip to Beijing on Nov. 21, he offered China the use of the Manta air base, for which the U.S. Air Force Southern Command’s 10-year usage rights expire in 24 months. While this is by no means a done deal, like Venezuela, Ecuador is explicitly offering itself up as a geopolitical entry point into South America for Beijing. If China accepts the deal, however, it will be more for reasons of trade then for expansionist ambitions.

Analysis
During a visit to Beijing on Nov. 21, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa offered Chinese investors a “geopolitical window” to use his country as a bridge for accessing markets in South America. While this is not the first time China has been made such an offer by a Latin American nation, it is the first time U.S. geopolitical interests in the region have been so closely brushed up against.

At issue is Eloy Alfaro Air Base in Manta, which the U.S. Air Force Southern Command currently is using under a 10-year agreement signed with Quito in November 1999. Approximately 475 U.S. military personnel are stationed there as part of the U.S. campaign against the illegal drug trade in the “source zone” of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.

As part of his 2006 presidential campaign, Correa made the renewal of this agreement dependent on the reciprocal stationing of an Ecuadorian air base in Miami — which the United States rejected, of course. Correa now is living up to his word.

To date, Correa only has offered the air base to China. This move is aimed partly at maintaining domestic support, partly at extracting preferential trade access to U.S. markets (something Washington probably will cave in and deliver) and partly at securing Chinese capital for fulfilling Manta’s future role as the largest Sino-Latin American trade transshipment hub on the South American west coast.

More:
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/china_ecuador_beijings_latin_american_opportunity

(Obviously, the number of people ACTUALLY there at any given time is simply beyond anyone's ability to know, for sure.)

[Robbien]

7. I don't know why

the Ecuadorian base looms larger in my head. It being a small base with just a couple of non-threatening planes just doesn't seem right.

Oh well. Here's hoping Correa is able to shut it down

[Judi Lynn]

8. It's hard to tell what the actual situation is. Often we don't know 'til years later!

I've looked for photos of the place, and they are keeping them completely out of reach. Only very distant, vague photos are available to internet people.

It's possible you've got the image of the Paraguay airbase, Estigarribia in mind. That airstrip, carved out in the middle of the jungle, is COLOSSAL! It was put there during Richard Nixon's time, I believe, by the Nazi-harboring Paraguayan dictator Stroessner. This thing is astonishing:

[Robbien]

10. You are probably right.

Probably thinking about Paraguay. But with my deep distrust of our actions in Latin America, bases being bigger and badder than what we officially claim is the rule not the exception.

[L. Coyote]

4. Good news. And just desserts. Colombia is the problem, with right wingnut narcos in control!!

[raccoon]

5. Think, why is this happening now. Would it have happened in the '50's?

NFW. Or the '70's? Same answer.

[SpiralHawk]

9. "We don't need no steenkin republicon, imperialist chickenhawk conquistadors." - Ecuador

[noel adamson]

11. They said we could stay if they could put a base in Florida as I recall....

[L0oniX]

12. YEY ...I wish more countries would kick the US military out.

We have no business behaving like the world police. How would we like a Russian (you name the country) air base in our country? So then, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" ...in God we trust American hypocrites !