ANDThe President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboaannounced on Monday that it will send a bill to the National Assembly (Parliament) to remove an article from the Constitution that prohibits the establishment of foreign military bases and facilities for military purposes in the Andean country.
According to the criteria of
“In a transnational conflict (against organized crime), we need national and international responses,” said Noboa, who is fighting criminal gangs linked to drug trafficking.
The announcement was made through a video recorded at what was the Manta base.on the central coast of Ecuador, where a US base operated several years ago and which had to leave in 2009 after the Constitution drafted by the Government of Rafael Correa (2007-2017) prohibited foreign military installations on national territory out of respect for sovereignty.
With this project, it seeks to eliminate the prohibition on the establishment of military bases or foreign facilities with military purposesas well as eliminating the prohibition on handing over national military bases to foreign armed or security forces.
Argument against the “pact” with drug trafficking
In the video Noboa pointed out that, eliminate the Manta base, “they meant that in this way we would recover Ecuador’s sovereigntyand what they did was hand him over to drug trafficking. That was the first pact with transnational crime,” he stressed.
raising the country that they left on its knees, the country that they turned into a cradle of drug trafficking, the one that they handed out to the mafias with a false notion of sovereignty
“And, in this fight to recover the country, it is the pact that we have to reverse and break. Today, Ecuadorians deserve a government that is up to the events we are going through. They deserve a president who makes decisions with determination. Because Ecuador did not need opportunities but honesty and political will.“, he added.
For this reason, he announced that this Monday they will present a project for partial reform to the Constitution before the National Assembly“which substantially modifies Article 5 of the Constitution, which prohibits the establishment of foreign military bases and facilities for military purposes.”
Without mentioning names, The head of state asserted that they are “raising the country that they left on its knees”“The country that was turned into the cradle of drug trafficking, the one that was handed out to the mafias with a false notion of sovereignty.”
“Time has shown us that old decisions only weakened our country in the face of threats that today know no borders and have no mercy,” he said.
The role of the National Assembly
And he pointed out that the Government has “very light” the country they want, which is why he said that “it is time for the National Assembly to once and for all decide which side of history it is on.”
Since the beginning of the year, Noboa raised the fight against organized crime to the category of “internal armed conflict”, with which he went on to classify these bands as terrorist groups and non-state belligerent actors, while decreeing a state of emergency with which, among other actions, militarized the prisons controlled by these organizationswhich are also accused of being related to drug trafficking.
Surrounded by Colombia and Peruthe world’s two largest producers of cocaine, with several ports on their coasts, such as that of Guayaquil, and a dollarized economyIn recent years, Ecuador has become an important passageway for drug trafficking, which is mostly destined for Europe and North America.
Ecuador is listed as the third country in the world that seizes the most drugs – second only to Colombia and the United States – with some 200 tons of narcotics seized annually in each of the last three years.
However, so far this year Ecuador has already surpassed that amount of drug seizures, according to the Minister of the Interior, Monica Palencia, who estimated the figure at 204.06 tons so far. on September 15, 25% more than in the same period in 2023.
#Ecuadorian #President #proposes #allowing #foreign #military #bases #combat #drug #trafficking