Ecuador wants military base in Miami

[Lucas Corso]

Ecuador wants military base in Miami
Mon Oct 22, 2007 3:38pm BST

By Phil Stewart

NAPLES (Reuters) - Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa said Washington must let him open a military base in Miami if the United States wants to keep using an air base on Ecuador's Pacific coast.

Correa has refused to renew Washington's lease on the Manta air base, set to expire in 2009. U.S. officials say it is vital for counter-narcotics surveillance operations on Pacific drug-running routes.

"We'll renew the base on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami -- an Ecuadorean base," Correa said in an interview during a trip to Italy.

"If there's no problem having foreign soldiers on a country's soil, surely they'll let us have an Ecuadorean base in the United States."

The U.S. embassy to Ecuador says on its Web site that anti-narcotics flights from Manta gathered information behind more than 60 percent of illegal drug seizures on the high seas of the Eastern Pacific last year.

It offers a fact-sheet on the base at: Manta FOL - U.S. Embassy Quito, Ecuador

Correa, a popular leftist economist, had promised to cut off his arm before extending the lease that ends in 2009 and has called U.S. President George W. Bush a "dimwit".

But Correa, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, told Reuters he believed relations with the United States were "excellent" despite the base closing.

He rejected the idea that the episode reflected on U.S. ties at all.

"This is the only North American military base in South America," he said.

"So, then the other South American countries don't have good relations with the United States because they don't have military bases? That doesn't make any sense."

Source: Ecuador wants military base in Miami | Editor\'s Choice | Reuters

[bombadillo]

Originally Posted by Lucas Corso

Correa, a popular leftist economist, had promised to cut off his arm before extending the lease that ends in 2009 and has called U.S. President George W. Bush a "dimwit".

That's the last straw for the US. Correa is now an evil dictator who has become part of the "axis of evil." "Democracy" has to be brought to Ecuador. Correa must be seized by American troops and stand trial for...er... something will be dreamt up. And Correa has had warm relations with Osama. The proof? An Ecuadorian official was seen meeting an Al-Qaeda agent in Timbuktu.

Correa (and Chavez) had better be careful the same thing doesn't happen to them as happened to Noriega.

[Sergius]

Funny. The logical extension of an idea that some Danish leftists had a couple of years ago, before the Iraq war - they sent a delegation to the US to look for WMD's.

[meadhbh]

I don't what the problem is not like any one speaks english in Miami anyway.