Pubdate: Thu, 15 Mar 2001
Source: Bergen Record (NJ)
Copyright: 2001 Bergen Record Corp.
Contact:  150 River St., Hackensack, NJ 07601
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Author: Monte Hayes

U.S. ROLE IN DRUG WAR CREATES CONCERNS IN ECUADOR

MANTA, Ecuador -- American airmen armed with M-16 assault rifles keep 
a close watch on U.S. Navy spy planes parked on a runway at an 
airfield on the outskirts of this Pacific port.

The Ecuadorean air base has become the new hub of U.S. surveillance 
flights over the vast cocaine-producing areas of South America, and 
the U.S. military guards have reason to be vigilant.

The drug-fueled violence that Ecuadoreans long feared would spill 
over the Colombian border has arrived -- intensifying a debate over 
the wisdom of giving the United States a foothold close to the 
troubled frontier.

Many Ecuadoreans worry their country is being set up as a staging 
ground for U.S. intervention in Colombia and could be sucked into a 
regional conflict.

"We support the base being used to fight drug trafficking," Antonio 
Posso, an influential congressman, said in an interview in Quito, the 
capital. "But the base apparently is being used also to put together 
an operation to fight Colombia's guerrillas, which involves us in a 
conflict that is not Ecuador's."

The United States is spending $62 million to expand and improve the 
Manta runway and build hangars, dormitories, and a dining hall. The 
number of U.S. servicemen assigned to Manta has risen to 125 and that 
figure will reach 400 after construction work is completed in October.

At that point, giant U.S. AWACS surveillance planes and tankers to 
refuel them will replace the smaller Navy aircraft, allowing the 
United States to monitor air and marine activity far into the 
Caribbean. That will allow full resumption of U.S. anti-drug 
surveillance flights, which were cut by two-thirds when U.S. forces 
evacuated Howard Air Force Base in Panama in 1999.

The United States maintains the Manta base will remain under 
Ecuadorean control and is being used only as an observation post to 
track drug-smuggling aircraft and boats. U.S. officials insist it has 
nothing to do with the $1.3 billion U.S. aid package for the 
counternarcotics offensive in Colombia.

"The closing of Howard Air Force Base in Panama stopped the ability 
of the government to easily look at the movement of drugs from Latin 
America to the United States," U.S. Ambassador Gwen Clare said in an 
interview in Quito. "Manta, which sits in the middle of the source 
zone, has improved dramatically our ability to monitor movement of 
drugs in the region.

"Why would we put at risk this pearl that we have? Why would we put 
at risk this opportunity to see, as we have never seen before, what 
is going on in the transit zone," Clare said.

But many Ecuadoreans remain suspicious and the anxiety level in the 
country has risen as Colombia's violence has begun to directly impact 
Ecuador.

A recent attack in a coastal village on the Colombian border, Palma 
Real, stunned Ecuadoreans by its savagery.

Colombian drug traffickers abducted and killed a village official and 
six of his relatives and friends, including his 14-year-old daughter. 
They disfigured their victims' faces with acid and slit open their 
abdomens, spilling out their intestines.

The motive? The official had dared to confiscate 200 kilos of cocaine 
the Colombians had tried to smuggle through Ecuador.

The violence was a nightmare for many Ecuadoreans, who fear U.S. use 
of the Manta base may provoke bloody reprisals from powerful 
Colombian rebel groups who protect the narcotics trade.

Ecuadoreans' suspicions of U.S. plans for Manta may stem partly from 
the secrecy surrounding the government's agreement to let the United 
States use the air base for 10 years.

Jamil Mahuad, the president who approved the arrangement in November 
1999, was overthrown two months later in a military-backed coup 
provoked by widespread public discontent over his mismanagement of 
the economy. He fled the country in disgrace.

Critics say Mahuad had hoped the Manta agreement would lead to U.S. 
support for international loans to bail out the sinking economy.

"He never thought about what it meant for Ecuador's security," said 
Andres Bonilla, a political scientist.

Former Foreign Minister Benjamin Ortiz said the Mahuad government 
viewed cooperation with the United States as "a way of protecting the 
country from the problem of drug trafficking" in Colombia.

"We should realize that we have the world's largest criminal 
enterprise next door and that it can destroy us," he said.

The Manta base commander argues it is in his country's interest to 
cooperate with the United States.

"I'm convinced the Colombian guerrillas are going to spread out 
because of Plan Colombia and the north of Ecuador is going to be an 
escape route for them," said Col. Jose Bohorquez. "It is something 
that is coming whether the Ecuadorean base harbors the Americans or 
not."

Despite the controversy, there is little opposition among the 
residents of Manta, who have put out the welcome mat for American 
servicemen. Townspeople are delighted with the prospect of millions 
of dollars pouring in at a time when Ecuador is trying to dig its way 
out of its deepest economic crisis in decades.

The airport expansion has produced hundreds of construction jobs, and 
new restaurants and bars have popped up along the port's seaside 
avenue aimed at pulling in the Yankee dollar.

"They've treated us very well," said Lt. Col. Richard Hair, chief of 
the U.S. Air Force mission. "Obviously, they're interested in the 
economic benefits, but they've been very, very friendly and we've 
felt a great deal of support from everyone in town."
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