A World Without Foreign Military Bases

by Kintto Lucas
March 18, 2007
ZNet

Most of the 1,000 foreign military bases on the planet belong to the United States, which has 737 in different countries (excluding secret bases)

– Lina Cahuasquí, activist with Ecuador No Bases Coalition


Quito - An international network for the abolition of foreign military bases has been created at a conference attended by over 1,000 activists and experts from 30 countries, which opened in Ecuador's capital city on Monday. The No Bases Network will coordinate action strategies against the more than 1,000 military bases worldwide.

Lina Cahuasquí, an activist with the Ecuador No Bases Coalition, told IPS that the No Bases Network will be "a plural, democratic space, linked to the permanent struggles of social organisations for a military-free system that is based on respect, equity, justice and a culture of peace."

The first international conference of its kind will continue until Friday, and will analyse the impact of foreign military bases and local people's struggles against their existence.

Sessions on the first day were devoted to sharing experiences from each country. Joint strategies for action will also be planned, and on Thursday, International Women's Day, a "Women for Peace" caravan will travel from Quito to the western port of Manta, where the largest U.S. base in South America is located.

On the closing day of the conference, cultural festivals will be held in Quito and Manta, and a world solidarity campaign calling for the definitive closure of the Manta base will be launched.

Cahuasquí said that most of the 1,000 foreign military bases on the planet belong to the United States, which has 737 in different countries. Others belong to Russia, China, the United Kingdom and Italy.

"And these do not include secret military bases, like the four operated by the U.S. in Iraq," she said.

"But the United States doesn't only have bases in developing countries. It has 81 bases in Germany and 37 in Japan," she added. In Latin America and the Caribbean there are 17 U.S. military bases, located in Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, Aruba, Curaçao, Honduras, Ecuador, and Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, she noted.

Wilbert van der Zeijden, of the Transnational Institute in the Netherlands, said he wanted the meeting to foster "a broad global campaign" against foreign military presence and bases all over the world.

"If we can't shut down all the bases, we may at least be able to weaken the U.S. military network which allows them to attack when and where they wish," he said.

Corazón Fabros Valdez, from the Philippines, is on the International Organising Committee for the conference. She said she hoped that the Ecuador meeting will consolidate world support for the movement to close the Manta base, and strengthen the government's resolve to terminate the lease in December 2009, when it expires.

"We saw the importance of international solidarity for achieving success during the struggle against U.S. bases in the Philippines," she said.

"The Philippines had U.S. military bases for over 100 years, which were used against Vietnam and other nations. Some of the worst effects were violations of human rights and democracy," said Fabros Valdez.

Ecuador's new president, Rafael Correa, has already announced that he will not renew the lease of the Manta base. Spokespersons for the George W. Bush administration had intimated that the United States would like to continue using the facilities until 2012.

Manta is Ecuador's main port, located on the Pacific Ocean 260 kilometres from Quito.

Herbert Docena, a researcher with Focus on the Global South in the Philippines, also said he hoped that the conference would send a very clear message that people all over the world do not want foreign military bases.

"Besides the political declaration, we want to establish the No Bases Network all over the world and increase its dynamism, so that it embarks on medium and long term projects," Docena told IPS.

"The United States backed Ferdinando Marcos (1965-1986) with exorbitant sums of money in exchange for maintaining their bases in the Philippines. Without their support for Marcos, we would never have had such a long dictatorship," he said.

"It was only after the bases were closed in 1992 that we realised how much pollution they had caused," he said.

Another participant at the conference is U.S. pacifist Cindy Sheehan, mother of Casey Sheehan, a soldier killed in Iraq. She is here to tell her story and join the Women for Peace caravan.

Cahuasquí spoke of the U.S. base at Vieques, Puerto Rico, as an example of the negative consequences of military bases. "The area was contaminated with heavy metals, chemicals, and even nuclear waste like depleted uranium, with harmful effects on the water, human beings, and the environment in general," she said.

Many bases are touted as centres for cooperation and exchange, but are equipped with hi-tech communications gear and used for espionage, as in New Zealand.

The activists discussed the achievements of their struggle so far, including the case of Italy, where more than 100,000 people took to the streets to demonstrate that they would not accept violations of their national sovereignty.

Another example was the peaceful uprising of the Puerto Rican people to secure the closure of the Vieques base, after 60 years of U.S. military presence.

Ecuador has refused a U.S. proposal to set up another military base on the island of Baltra, in the Galápagos. Panama ousted the U.S. Navy, and Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil have in recent years ceased to participate in joint naval manoeuvres with the United States.

"We are inspired by the Ecuadorean government's position on closing down the Manta base, but we're also concerned about the pressure the United States is exerting on this country to keep the base," said Cahuasquí.

Lawmakers from Brazil, Venezuela and European countries are participating at the conference alongside activists, as is the secretary general of the World Peace Council, member of the European Parliament Tobias Pflueger, and Mexican researcher Ana Esther Ceceña.

Speakers include Kyle Kajihiro, a staunch defender of the rights of native Hawaiians, environmental justice and demilitarisation, and Andrés Thomas, a member of the U.S.-based Democracy Now.

Ecuador Slams Foreign Military Bases

Quito, Mar 2 (Prensa Latina) The first guests to the International Conference for the elimination of foreign military bases have arrived in this capital.

The March 5-9 conference, to run in Quito and at the coastal city of Manta, will approach environmental and community impact of foreign military presence and global domination strategies.

On March 5, 6 and 7 the conference will session at the Catholic University and on March 8 a "Caravan of Women for Peace and against military bases" will go from Quito to Manta.

The closing in March 9 in Manta, Manabi, includes the public conference "Colonization and Local Struggle," at the Eloy Alfaro Laic University.

The announcement of this meeting has already drawn statements from the US embassy and several Ecuadorian private TV channels on alleged benefits of the US military presence in Ecuador.

Yet, US citizen Andres Thomas, from the group No Violence, said the meeting will discuss these bases as a threat to sovereignty and world peace.

He also called to back President Rafael Correa to evict the US military from Manta, in southwest Ecuador, by the year 2009.

The meeting expects attendance from 400-plus delegates from 40 countries.

Its Final Declaration will send a clear message of world rejection of military bases.

Ecuador Stands Up to the US

By ROGER BURBACH.

From Counterpunch, February 19, 2007

Quito, Ecuador.

The leftist government of Rafael Correa has moved assertively in its relations with the United States during its first month in office. The Minister of Foreign Relations, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, in a meeting with the Foreign Press Association in Quito declared that Ecuador intends to close the US military base located at Manta. "Ecuador is a sovereign nation, we do not need any foreign troops in our country," she said. The treaty for the base expires in 2009 and will not be renewed.

The largest US base on South America's Pacific coast, it was ostensibly set up to help monitor narco-trafficking over the ocean and in the nearby Amazon basin. But it has become a major operations center for US intelligence gathering and for coordinating counterinsurgency efforts against the leftist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia. The base's air runway, built at a cost of eighty million dollars, is capable of accommodating the largest and most sophisticated US spy and intelligence gathering air craft. Manta is also used as a port for US naval operations in the Pacific. Upwards of 475 US military personal are continually rotated between Manta and the US Southern Command headquarters in Florida.

Popular sentiment in Ecuador overwhelmingly supports the closure of the US base at Manta. Since its establishment in 1999 the civil war in Colombia has spread to Ecuador, bringing refugees, violence and social conflict, particularly in the Amazon region. Aerial spraying of herbicides by planes originating in Colombia eradicates food crops and has deleterious health effects on Ecuadorian children and adults. The Colombian and US governments claim that the defoliants are only sprayed on the Colombian side of the border and that there are no flights over Ecuador. But President Correa vehemently disagrees: "We will not permit the continual violation of Ecuadorian air space by planes, that are not even Colombian, but from the United States. They enter our country, and then fly back to Colombia." Correa has ordered the Ecuadorian air force "to intercept any planes that violate our air space."

The Correa government is preparing a case for the World Court at the Hague against the Colombian government for the conflict and damages in northern Ecuador. Foreign Minister Espinosa is emphatic in saying that this is a "violation of human rights. It is not only a question of the health effects, but also of the psychological traumas caused by the constant over flights and the terrorization of the local population, particularly among the children who hear planes flying overhead and are subjected to war-like conditions." Special teams comprised international health and human rights representatives are being formed to investigate the conditions on the border. "We want to replace the conflictive conditions with a Plan for Peace and Development in the region," says Espinosa.

Last week the Vice-President of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, in a trip to Caracas, Venezuela, stated that the Colombian government "should act more as a friendly neighbor and not respond only to the orders of the empire." Commenting on the upcoming trip in March of President Bush to Latin America that excludes Ecuador, Moreno added: "Every time Bush comes to visit our region we worry because we don't know what proposals he comes to impart and what sorts of statements he will make." His comments caused an uproar, and in an effort to calm the diplomatic waters, Espinosa said that Moreno's remarks were not officially sanctioned. "We want cordial, normal relations with the US embassy and government in order to resolve any issues between us," she said.

The Correa government is also moving adroitly to break with the neo-liberal trade and commercial policies that have been imposed on Ecuador by Washington and international lending agencies. In line with his campaign platform, Rafael Correa has made it clear that he will never sign the Free Trade Agreement with the United States that was being discussed with previous governments. At the same time, Ecuador is negotiating special bilateral trade and economic agreements with Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia. Venezuela has agreed to refine Ecuadorian oil and provide financial assistance for social programs in Ecuador, while the Bolivian government has concluded an agreement to import food commodities from small and medium producers in Ecuador.

For the moment Correa has not opted to join the People's Trade Treaty signed last year between Cuba, Bolivia, and Venezuela. But as Rene Baez, an economic analyst at the Catholic University of Ecuador says: "The treaty is really a series of special accords and financial agreements, and in that sense Ecuador is already an informal member of this alternative bloc."

The financial news that captured the headlines last week was the announcement of Economics Minister Ricardo Patino that Ecuador would make a scheduled debt payment of $135 million to foreign bond holders. Known for his long-held belief that paying off the foreign debt undercuts critical social spending programs and keeps Ecuador in a state of perpetual poverty, Patino's decision came just two days after he had announced that Ecuador would not make the $135 million payment.

Informed sources close to the government say that after high level discussions, Correa opted to pay the bond holders, preferring to concentrate on the upcoming negotiations with international creditors over a reduction in the schedule of debt payments and on the annulment of part of the debt that was the result of corrupt practices by prior Ecuadorian governments and foreign creditors. As Rene Baez says, "the Correa government decided to be selective in the battles it is taking on for the moment. A default now would have caused an international reaction and possibly provoked a domestic financial crisis, just as the government is trying to get its legs under it."

Roger Burbach is director of the Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA) and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley. He is co-author with Jim Tarbell of "Imperial Overstretch: George W. Bush and the Hubris of Empire," His latest book is: "The Pinochet Affair: State Terrorism and Global Justice."

Correa's challenge

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has promised radical change but faces heavy opposition in Congress that will test the patience of his constituency.

Commentary by Sam Logan for ISN Security Watch (06/02/07)

Even though he has only been in office since 15 January, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa - the country's ninth president in a decade - is feeling the pressure to make good on his election promises as his supporters and others clash with police.

Correa's supporters expect him to deliver results after listening to a number of promises made during his presidential campaign. At the top of the list is a popular referendum, which by his second day in office, Correa had announced his intention to call for 18 March. Ecuadorians would vote on a number of Correa's proposed reforms, including a Constitutional Assembly.

Defying Correa's order to move forward with the referendum, Ecuador's electoral court ruled that the request for a popular referendum must be passed by the Congress, where it will surely face crippling opposition.

On 30 January, students, workers and a mass of Correa's supporters forced their way in to Ecuador's congressional building, with sticks, rocks and bottles, chanting "death to the rats" and "down with Congress, yes to the popular assembly." Congressional leader Jorge Ceballos closed the legislature and accused the Correa administration of inciting the protesters. But such endorsement for the new president may be short-lived if he fails in his pledges.

Correa ran as an independent, standing on a platform that would rally the support of a number of smaller groups, from students and workers to indigenous rights groups. His political party, Alianza Pais (AP), has no representation in Congress, where his opponent, Alvaro Noboa, controls the largest block with 28 of 100 seats. The second largest block, with 24 seats, falls under the influence of former Ecuadorian president Lucio Gutierrez, who has presidential ambitions. Correa does not appear to have focused on building an alliance within Congress.

Instead, the president will likely circumvent congressional oversight through a Constituent Assembly. According to a 20 January Cedatos/Gallup poll, Correa's approval rating is currently above 70 percent, while that of Congress hovers just under 15 percent. With these numbers, Correa will have for a limited time the political capital necessary to push through a popular referendum. However, Congress is likely to dig in, knowing a Constitutional Assembly will likely call for early elections.

If Correa forces congressional elections by decision of an assembly, his popularity may hold long enough to gain backing in Congress. The rewards are great, but the risks are greater. Betting on popular support to outlast the legislatures' efforts to defend its position may result in a stalemate that would test Ecuadorians' patience. Correa knows how quickly popular support can turn into calls for his removal. Some of his predecessors lasted only three days.

But as Congress debates the popular referendum, Correa is already at work making good on smaller promises. He has begun cleaning out the top ranks of the national police, fulfilling his promise to root out corruption there.

In the aftermath of a helicopter crash on 24 January that killed Ecuadorian Defense Minister Guadalupe Larriva, investigations revealed sloppy planning and Correa quickly dismissed Army Chief Pedro Machado.

By signing oil deals with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to improve Ecuador's refining process, Correa has sealed a geopolitical relationship between the two countries that for now will help Ecuador manage its oil assets. Deals with Venezuela will boost technical expertise and refining necessary to keep Ecuador's oil revenue flowing. Correa has taken the first steps toward the larger goal of placing more of Ecuador's oil assets under state control, and he will likely spend windfall oil revenue on social programs that will buoy approval ratings.

Correa has also said he would not sign a Free Trade Agreement with the US. He is also not likely to renew a US military lease to use the Ecuadorian airbase in Manta. Both are popular moves among his constituents.

Appeasing Ecuador's indigenous community, Correa announced on 5 February that his government would suspend contracts with any oil company that needlessly damaged the environment. His administration's first probe will be into the operations of a Brazilian company inside of one of Ecuador's natural preserves.

This list of measures and others scheduled to come in the next few weeks will keep Correa's approval ratings high for the foreseeable future. But the outcome of plans for a popular referendum will determine the end result of Correa's presidential term.

As Ecuador's Congress digs in, Correa is likely to stoke popular sentiment. But he must be careful. Correa's election shows that Ecuadorians demand radical change. And it is unclear how much time they are willing to give him to make good on his promises.

Ecuador's defence minister dies in crash

Thursday Jan 25

Ninemsn

Ecuador's first female defence minister was killed on Wednesday after only nine days in office in a mid-air collision of two helicopters, government and military officials said.

The accident in the Andean nation further rocks the leftist government of President Rafael Correa, who has clashed with Congress over his executive powers and prompted street protests since taking office along with his ministers on January 15.

Minister Guadalupe Larriva, a former teacher and senior official of a socialist political party supporting Correa, died in the crash in a Pacific coastal province east of Quito, presidential spokeswoman Monica Chuji said.

Correa wanted Larriva, one of only a few civilians to lead Ecuador's 176-year-old military, to control an institution that has played a part in the ouster of three presidents in the last decade by publicly withdrawing its support as street protests erupted.

Larriva, one of the most popular members of the Cabinet, had promised to strengthen presidential control of military ranks, improve salaries for the armed forces and make the promotions system more transparent.

US firemen stationed at an air base at the port city of Manta rushed to the scene of the crash, a US embassy spokesman said.

Correa was flying from the southern port city of Guayaquil to the area of the crash, according to a local television station.

Correa asked the country to "pray for the soul of Guadalupe, her daughter, her family and the government of Ecuador".