Ecuador says US must leave Manta air base

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Ecuador says US must leave Manta air base
The Associated Press

Tue, Jul 29, 2008 (6:45 p.m.)

The U.S. military must stop using its only outpost in South America for anti-drug flights when Washington's 10-year lease on the base in Ecuador expires in 2009, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Leftist President Rafael Correa has repeatedly said that Ecuador would not renew the agreement to use the Manta air base, but Tuesday's Foreign Ministry statement said the South American nation has now formally notified the U.S. Embassy of the decision.

Some 300 U.S. soldiers are stationed at the Pacific base and flights from Manta are responsible for about 60 percent of U.S. drug interdiction in the eastern Pacific.

The statement said that surveillance flights will end in August 2009 "and the withdrawal of foreign personnel from the Ecuadorean Air Force base in Manta will end in November of that year."



Read more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jul/29/ecuador-says-us-must-leave-manta-air-base/

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

1. Uh oh, better fire up the bribery/extortion/intimidation machine.

Sounds like a job for those wonderfully wacky funloving pranksters over at the CIA.

[gratuitous]

7. Well, the intimidation machine, at least

A few pay-offs to some death squads, sending a few weapons down to Ecuador and distributing them to disgruntled people who aren't used to sharing, and we should have a dandy little insurrection break out. We'll see if the Ecuadoran president is so anxious to have the American troops leave when the banditos are running amok in Quito.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

8. That's the way we do business alright.

[roody]

2. Oh, oh. Correa better stay out of airplanes.

[Indenturedebtor]

3. Why does he hate Murika? Is he brown?

If so I say that we teach that commie bastard a lesson! :grr:

[trthnd4jstc]

4. America must end its Imperialism. Restore the Republic!

Our War on Drugs is a War on a Free Market. What about Free Markets? Joking. I do not support our Latin American Narcotics Policy. I do not support the use of our military to be in Columbia, nor Ecuador, nor Venezuela, not unless it was requested by those countries, etcetera. Really, I wish for Latin America to be free of influence from fascists in the US. Ecuador says leave. That is fine with me.

[silverweb]

5. Good.

n/t

[Puglover]

6. I love Correa!

My partner and I are going there in Feb. to check out Quito and a place called Cotacatchi.

[Taverner]

9. Awesome!

US out of Latin America!

[Judi Lynn]

10. Ecuador tells U.S. to leave base next year

July 30, 2008 -- Updated 0247 GMT (1047 HKT)
Ecuador tells U.S. to leave base next year

From Mike Mount
CNN Pentagon Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Ecuadorian government has told the Bush administration it will not renew a 10-year agreement letting U.S. troops conduct anti-drug operations from the Latin American country, according to U.S. military officials.

The United States has used Manta Air Base, an Ecuadorian Air Force installation, since 1999 to run aerial surveillance of the eastern Pacific Ocean, looking for drug runners on the high seas as well as illicit flights.

Ecuador notified the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday that it will not renew the agreement after it expires in November 2009, the U.S. military officials said.

"The Ecuadorian people do not want foreign troops on our soil, and the government has to follow the mandate of its people," Luis Gallegos, Ecuador's ambassador to the United States, said Wednesday.

"We have spent more than $150 million on troops to monitor the border with Colombia and will continue to support anti-narcotics operations in our country," Gallegos said.

More:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/07/30/us.equador.base/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

[a la izquierda]

11. Hmm, good that countries down there are

telling the US what to do.
I'm unconvinced that the US will remain quiet about this.

[Tempest]

12. They'll just set up shop in Columbia

At least as long as the government there is friendly.

[a la izquierda]

13. eh, you're probably right.

we'll see how long that lasts. colombia has had a weird history.