Ecuador wants military base in Miami(more like DEMANDS base in Miami)

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Milforum Mac Daddy
Ecuador wants military base in Miami
Reuters
Oct 23, 2007
Phil Stewart
http://uk.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUKADD25267520071022? 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_of_interest/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."
 
If you think about it, sounds fair enough. Actually, get them to open one up and they'll close it because of costs anyway.
 
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...
:biggun:
 
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.
 
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.
 
every new zealander loves an underdog and i have to say when i read this story i had a wee chuckle to my self

also, i found this map;

usmilitarymap.jpg


impressive huh? well that is till you dig deeper, by my reckoning they are counting USMC embassy guards in their figures. also i can say that the US military base in NZ is the US navy's antactic resupply base at christchurch airport (and *maybe* the waihopo spy base)
 
Outdated map, no troops in a few of those countries today and those pink countries the troops are there training or working in embassies. The map is misleading.
 
This map is quite misleading and is made for recruitment purposes and little more. It's true we do have troops in most of the nations around the world, embassy guards always count since they are members of the military. The odd part is that the United States considers embassies extensions of American territory, which means that according to the US those guards are on American territory anyways. Plus this map is pre-2003 Invasion of Iraq, Iraq should be striped pink and red.

Back to topic.

Screw it, we'll pull our base out, start to undo 120 years of 'diplomacy' in Latin America, for better or for worse.
 
bulldogg said:
Outdated map, no troops in a few of those countries today and those pink countries the troops are there training or working in embassies. The map is misleading.
Click to expand...



i know, i thought what i said illustrated that i knew it was misleading,


also, the map it's self says the figures are from 2001/2002
 
This grandstanding at Hugito's and Fidels behest. Number 1 Ecuador couldn't support a base here so it would be aside from the US subsidizing it and creating jobs. The only thing it would produce is a bunch of low paid Ecadorano soliders in Miami.

Other than that I think we shift or attention to Latin America and the CARIB because Fidel is slowly realizing his dream.
 
Why Miami - why not Alexandria, VA or better yet - San Francisco... Will fit in nice w/ the socialists, I mean liberals that already reside in these areas!
 
I should have guessed he was mates with Hugo Chavez. Im sure Ecudor hasn't got the budget to build a base let alone service it. Maybe a clapped out Hind and an Antonov will sit around permenantly grounded but that'd be the worst of it I'd expect.

Even if the US gave them the green light they wouldn't know what to do.
 
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