Weekly Report - 17 May 2007
ECUADOR: No to Manta but not to military cooperation
Ecuador will continue to work closely with the US to combat drug-trafficking after its lease on the forward operating location (FOL) in Manta expires in 2009. That was the message conveyed by the foreign minister, María Fernanda Espinosa, this week in the wake of the visit to Quito by the US assistant secretary of state, John Negroponte. Espinosa said that President Rafael Correa was unmoveable in his determination to take back Manta but she stressed that Ecuador would continue to work together with the US against drug-trafficking and did not rule out possible military cooperation.
Espinosa's comments, on 14 May, came after Negroponte concluded the final part of his mini-tour of the region in Panama. The Panamanian daily La Estrella speculated that Ecuador's decision to cease leasing Manta, coupled with Peru's refusal to accept a US base, meant that the US would probably try and secure a base in Panama, which from a geostrategic perspective would be perfect for monitoring drug-trafficking in addition to the counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics operations in Colombia.
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