U.S. Military Returns to Exert ‘Influence’ in Ecuador and the Region
by Pablo Vivanco October 5, 2018 9:39 AM
As Oswaldo Jarrin, Ecuador’s Deputy Defense Minister, spoke to the media about a new binational program using U.S. military planes to surveil the Andean country’s coast, aEcuadorian flag in the backdrop fell, smacking another official square in the head.
Video of the botched press conference made the rounds on social media, with those opposing the reboot of the controversial “flyover” program pointing to the symbolism in the blunder.
Under the “cooperation agreement” signed by the government of President Lenin Moreno with the U.S. earlier this year, a Lockheed P-3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency will now monitor Ecuador’s coast for three to four days every month to “fight against drug trafficking, organized crime, human trafficking, illegal fishing, and contraband.”
Such an arrangement is hardly new. An almost identical program operated from the coastal city of Manta, Ecuador from 1999-2009, until then-President Rafael Correa decided not to renew the lease.
Under Correa, the Ecuadorian government championed a new constitution that declared Ecuador as “a territory of peace” and barred “foreign military bases”—a fact that his critics cite as evidence of the possible illegality of Moreno’s move. Moreno served as vice president to Correa.
The return of a U.S. military presence in Ecuador is part of a larger push from Washington to reassert its historical role across Latin America and the Caribbean.
More:
https://progressive.org/latest/us-military-returns-to-exert-influence-in-ecuador-and-region-181005/
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In case people have forgotten, Washington used the explanation it had to "protect" Latin America from the terrifying commies as its reason to control bases, run covert and overt operations throughout continuously, and support overthrows and paramilitaries (death squads) against dissidents until Ronald Reagan took credit for ending communism, and they were stuck momentarily without commies to hunt and militarily resist. Immediately the government protesters across the continent and Central America were translated to drug dealers and growers and traffickers! Voila! One day a commie, next day a drug trafficker, and the battle against the voiceless poor majority continued.
Smooth moves, right?
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