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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.
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." http://uk.reuters.com/article/reuter...25267520071022
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I've got to admit, the logice behind the leader's view on bases makes sense...
I don't believe that logic is the driving force behind this decision - I think that it is pure politics (and politics isn't logical). They have aligned themselves with Cuba, which seeks to wane the influence of the US in the southern hemisphere due to an outdated plan implemented by the Soviets in the early 60's after Castro seized power..
Someone give Castro the memo that the CCCP is dead. Speaking of which, someone give the same memo to the GOP and Anti-Castro Cubans in Florida.
As always, my questions are:
1) Why do we need a base down there?
2) Why is the host country against it?
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