U.S. base with vital role in drug war facing closure

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Sun, Feb. 18, 2007
ECUADOR
U.S. base with vital role in drug war facing closure
As anti-U.S. sentiment grows stronger in Ecuador, a small U.S. coastal base crucial to the drug war faces near-certain closure.
BY JEANNETH VALDIVIESO
Associated Press

MANTA, Ecuador - The U.S. military's lone outpost in South America is a modest affair -- some 220 Americans share space with a local air force wing and an international airport. They are allowed no more than eight planes at a time.

But these surveillance planes -- chiefly A-3 AWACs and P-3 Orions -- play a vital role in keeping Andean cocaine and heroin from reaching the United States. They are responsible for about 60 percent of drug interdiction in the eastern Pacific.

That matters little to newly inaugurated President Rafael Correa, whose rejection of a U.S. military presence in Ecuador reflects widespread resentment over Washington's foreign policy in a region where the Bush administration now has few reliable allies.

''We've said clearly that in 2009 the agreement will not be renewed because we believe that sovereignty consists of not having foreign soldiers on our home soil,'' Correa said recently.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/16725029.htm

[RC]

1. Good for them.

"...that sovereignty consists of not having foreign soldiers on our home soil..."

There are other ways to stem the drug trade without us, U.S., putting our military all over the globe. If there were foreign military bases in the US operating under the same or similar rules as we do, then yeah, there might be a case for the base. But not till then.

[ixion]

2. end the so-called drug war

it serves no one but the privatiazed prison and law enforcement industries.

[goforit]

3. Well, Poppy won't have his special envoy for his white gold.

But on Ecuador's behalf, their tolerence for the American soldier is wearing thin like every country in the world.

[sam sarrha]

6. why do you think he is not ass deep in Afgan Heroin.. we let it happen

[ohio2007]

4. We will save a buck or two

Even though the rent checks we give them won't ad up to much.

[sam sarrha]

5. with all the competition from the plague of Afgan heroin why am i not F'n supprised..!!!

since all the dirt cheap heroin is coming in have decided to upgrade the Caliber of my home security unit.

[Benhurst]

7. Good. It's time to stop this nonsense, which is nothing more than a transparent

excuse for the World's Only Superpower to station its stormtroopers all over the world.

[HuffleClaw]

8. yes, only APPROVED coke and heroin is 'allowed'

[Robbien]

9. "Although U.S. officials deny that Manta's planes spy "

"they do intercept drug flights and eavesdrop on radio communications there"

Excuse me, but what part of eavesdrop doesn't constitute spying? We lie so much that in the exact same sentence we lie and then give proof of the lie.