MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Noboa wants foreign military bases back in Ecuador but needs Constitutional reform for that

Noboa intends to reform Article 5 of the Ecuadorean Constitution so as to allow foreign military bases or installations in the country to fight organized crime

Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa has submitted before the Constitutional Court (CC) a projected amendment whereby foreign military bases might be admitted in the South American country. “The present request seeks that this magistracy carries out the prior control at a first moment of the project of partial reform to the Constitution that is presented, and that, through an opinion, pronounces itself regarding the way by which it should be processed,” read the document signed by the head of state.

Noboa intends to reform Article 5 of the Constitution, which provides that “Ecuador is a territory of peace. The establishment of foreign bases or foreign installations for military purposes will not be allowed. It is prohibited to cede national military bases to foreign armed or security forces.” The President argues that such a reform is needed because other tools are required in the face of newer forms of organized crime. “In a transnational conflict, we need a national and international response,” Noboa's rationale went on.

Former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) said Noboa's strategy was that of a “mediocre” man and a “liar” who “shows his total incapacity and lack of morals.”

Nevertheless, “from the Government, we are very clear about the country we want” and therefore “it is time for the National Assembly to decide on which side of history it will be.”

Noboa also posted a message on X from the place where a US military base used to function in US Base in Manta, in the province of Manabí, between 1999 and 2009.

Among the first reactions from the Ecuadorian Executive, , said that “under [Correa's] socialist discourse of sovereignty, Ecuador was deprived of permanent support in security and drug trafficking control,” Deputy the Government (Interior) Minister Esteban Torres explained. “We all know what happened later in Manabí...,” he added in reference to the 2021 explosion of the radar in that province used for aerial control against drug trafficking, which was reestablished this year.

Congresswoman Valentina Centeno of Noboa's National Democratic Action (ADN) party pointed out that “the 'loss of sovereignty' was only an excuse for those who gave entry to drug trafficking and organized crime.” She also argued that allowing foreign military bases was ”essential for the security of Manabí and Ecuador.

The US base in Manabí was the result of a 10-year agreement signed in 1999 by then-President Jamil Mahuad, which was not extended as the eventually doomed South American Union of Nations (Unasur) was gaining momentum in the region through leftwing governments such as Correa's, or Hugo Chávez's in Venezuela, plus those of Néstor and later Cristina Kirchner in Argentina, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil.