The United States is interested in establishing offices of its Department of Homeland Security at “strategic” facilities in Ecuador, where the head of that department, Kristi Noem, arrived on Wednesday.
Ecuadorians must first approve, in a referendum set for November 16, whether to allow the installation of foreign bases on their territory, something the Constitution has prohibited since 2008. The call for a referendum on foreign bases comes amid a U.S. military offensive in the Pacific and the Caribbean with deadly strikes against alleged narco boats, a strategy supported by Noboa.
Noem arrived Wednesday afternoon at the Eloy Alfaro air base in the city of Manta, in southwestern Ecuador, a country where about twenty drug gangs operate in connection with international cartels. Due to a power struggle among the mafias, Ecuador is one of the most violent nations in Latin America. In the last six years homicides have risen by more than 600%.
“When crime knows no borders, the strategies against it should not know borders either. The specific focus of this cooperation is on resources and technological equipment, which Ecuador still lacks,” said Gian Carlo Loffredo, the defense minister, in a government video.
On Thursday the secretary is scheduled to tour a military base in the coastal town of Salinas, in the southwest. Manta hosted U.S. aircraft for anti-drug flights for a decade until 2009, while Salinas, along with Baltra, was part of Washington’s military strategy during World War II. Both resorts have facilities of Ecuador’s Armed Forces.
The U.S. official and Noboa had already met in July in Quito. The president called the referendum on September 19. Noem will review “strategic facilities” for “potential bases” of the Department of Homeland Security, presidential spokesperson Carolina Jaramillo said earlier at a press conference in Quito.
That U.S. department protects the country from potential threats, and its functions include counterterrorism, border control, and migration management, among others. If the referendum passes, “security and defense agencies” of the United States and Ecuadorian police and military forces tasked with fighting organized crime will operate at those bases, the spokesperson added.
Noboa, an ally of Donald Trump’s government in the region, announced Friday that both countries had ruled out installing a U.S. military base in the Galápagos as part of a Pacific anti-narcotics campaign. Noboa also said he has spoken with Brazil about creating an Amazon Police force to combat organized crime in that region.
