MANTA, ECUADOR — The United States is battling a dangerous new front in its South American drug war -- just as a protege of anti-American leader Hugo Chavez comes to power in Ecuador vowing to shut down a U.S. base dedicated to narcotics surveillance.
Officials have expressed growing concern that this Andean nation is being "Colombianized," illustrated by record cocaine seizures in the last two years, the destruction of a major cocaine-processing lab and a recent gangland-style killing.
In recent months, U.S. and Ecuadorean forces have collaborated in the drug fight. But with today's inauguration of leftist President Rafael Correa, some U.S. officials worry the cooperation might be greatly curtailed.
Correa has promised to pursue a socialist agenda similar to that of his political mentor, Chavez, the president of Venezuela. Correa is the fifth left-leaning leader elected in Latin America in a little more than a year.
During his campaign, Correa promised that he would not renew the U.S. military's lease on the Manta air base, where eight drug surveillance planes have been based since 2000.
He said the departure of the U.S. aircraft after the lease expired in 2009 would affirm national sovereignty and open the way for Manta to become an international airport.
The presence of the U.S. planes rankles many Ecuadoreans, who think America's main goal is not to fight drugs but to keep a close eye on leftist guerrillas in Colombia.
Ecuador has tried to keep its distance from its neighbor's 40-year civil war and Plan Colombia, a $4-billion antidrug and antiterrorism program funded by the United States, fearing the Andean nation could be drawn into the conflict.
"Our leaders never got approval to permit the planes in the first place from the National Assembly or the Supreme Court, which they were required to do by law," said Luis Saavedra, president of the Human Rights Advisory Foundation in Quito, the capital. "This could make Manta a military target."
Base plays an integral role
U.S. officials said that the Manta base played a valuable role in efforts to control drug shipments and that ending the American military presence would make Ecuador more attractive to Colombian traffickers.
"There's concern for all the right reasons," one top U.S. law enforcement official said last month.
