US formally leaves controversial Ecuadorian base
philstar.com
September 19, 2009
The United States formally left the Manta military base in Ecuador yesterday via a 9.00 a.m. local time ceremony in which Ecuador took full control of the Pacific Coast facilities.
The Ecuador government formally resumed control of Manta, a military base on its Pacific coast, 10 years after was leased, rent-free, to the US military for anti-drug operations.
During the handover ceremony, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Fander Falconi said that the exit of US soldiers was “a triumph for national sovereignty.”
He also said that the lease agreement, signed in 1999, had not been properly legalized because it had only been approved by then foreign minister Heinz Muller and the legislature’s foreign affairs committee, not by the full legislature nor all Ecuadorians.
He also made a call for nations to avoid relations “based on subordination” and foreign military bases. …
The 1999 agreement was slammed by Ecuadorian social and political organizations, who also denounced US personnel and the base for violating Ecuadorians’ human rights.
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