Ecuador wants military base in Miami
Reuters
Oct 23, 2007
Phil Stewart
http://uk.reuters.com/article/reuter...5267520071022? sp=true
NAPLES (Reuters) - Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa said Washington must let him open a military base in Miami if the United States wants to keep using an air base on Ecuador's Pacific coast.

Correa has refused to renew Washington's lease on the Manta air base, set to expire in 2009. U.S. officials say it is vital for counter-narcotics surveillance operations on Pacific drug-running routes.

"We'll renew the base on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami -- an Ecuadorean base," Correa said in an interview during a trip to Italy.

"If there's no problem having foreign soldiers on a country's soil, surely they'll let us have an Ecuadorean base in the United States."

The U.S. embassy to Ecuador says on its Web site that anti-narcotics flights from Manta gathered information behind more than 60 percent of illegal drug seizures on the high seas of the Eastern Pacific last year.

It offers a fact-sheet on the base at: http://ecuador.usembassy.gov/topics_...manta-fol.html

Correa, a popular leftist economist, had promised to cut off his arm before extending the lease that ends in 2009 and has called U.S. President George W. Bush a "dimwit".

But Correa, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, told Reuters he believed relations with the United States were "excellent" despite the base closing.

He rejected the idea that the episode reflected on U.S. ties at all.

"This is the only North American military base in South America," he said.

"So, then the other South American countries don't have good relations with the United States because they don't have military bases? That doesn't make any sense."

yeah, i read that this morning... hahaha like that is ever going to happen

If you think about it, sounds fair enough. Actually, get them to open one up and they'll close it because of costs anyway.

Smells like Chavez's special joy is spreading.

Hillary's long lost cousin is getting out of line.
Fine, let that lease expire - but for every drug interdiction that originates from Ecuador's soil, we get to drop a precision-guided CBU-105 cluster bomb on your lovely residence.
By the way - a leftist economist is a contradiction in terms...

What harm could it do to have an Ecuadorian base on US soil?

That's a serious question, what would be the negatives?

Personally I'm not so sure either.
It would create some jobs around their base maybe. But I doubt their soldiers get paid enough to be able to spend it outside.
If they're even allowed outside.

Let Hillary get elected and we'll be able to watch Ecuadorean sorties while sunning ourselves on South Beach.

Cultural exchange man...

Well, the idea of foreign troops don't bother me that much. We already have a large number of German Troops station in Fort Bragg and also in Fort Hood if I remember. The Israelis also have some folks stationed stateside. They're all IAF if I remember, I think they're at Luke AFB.

If this ever happened (which it won't). I really wouldn't care. Now since this is from a underling of Chavez, I'm worried. But if it was a normal friendly nation that we're allies with I wouldn't care. In fact I'd welcome them. If they want a base in Miami I know the exact area that they can set up at.

Homestead, Florida. When the Base was switched from Active Duty to Reserve Status it destroyed the local economy. Hurricane Andrew also had a part to play in that but Homestead, FL got a large part of it's income and taxes from the base and it's personnel. If by some strange miracle that the USA would grant Ecuador a base in the USA. I think that Homestead AFB would be perfect. Give them a corner of it like how Fort Bragg is setup for the krauts and return Homestead AFB back to active duty status. It would keep the Ecuadoreans from doing something sneaking and fifth columnist and it would also rebuild the local economy of Homestead, Florida.