Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jan 2001
Source: International Herald-Tribune (France)
Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2001
Contact:  181, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, 92521 Neuilly Cedex, France
Fax: (33) 1 41 43 93 38
Website: http://www.iht.com/
Author: Anthony Faiola, Washington Post Service

ECUADOR'S ANXIETY RISES AS U.S. PRESENCE GROWS

MANTA, Ecuador At a military base 20 minutes by air from Colombia's
hottest war zone, construction workers are lengthening a runway and
excavating ground for cavernous hangars to house some important new
arrivals: U.S. E-3 AWACS surveillance planes.

Smaller U.S. spy planes are already flying missions from the Ecuadoran Air
Force base.

They are kept in the air by about 150 Americans: U.S. Air Force crews,
mechanics and security guards, among others. The AWACS jets will begin
operations this summer, and the number of American personnel here will rise to
about 400 over the next six months.

With that, Manta will become the main hub for U.S. surveillance
flights over the vast cocaine-producing areas of Latin America. U.S.
officials contend the hub will play a vital role in choking off the
drug trade by allowing full resumption of surveillance flights, which
were cut by two-thirds when U.S. forces vacated Howard Air Force Base
near Panama City 18 months ago.

But in a country already plagued by a cross-border spillover of
violence from Colombia's drug-fueled guerrilla war, the project has
touched off a bitter debate about the wisdom of opening the door to
Uncle Sam. Last year, a Colombian guerrilla leader pronounced the
Manta project a "declaration of war."

"We are compromising our neutrality in the Colombian conflict with the
Manta base, dragging ourselves into a war between the Americans and
their enemies in Colombia," said a congressman, Henry Llanes, who is
leading a fight to block the Manta project.

On Friday, Ecuadorans got unsettling news that their troops had killed
six men at an illegal drug-making lab near the Colombian border. By
some accounts, the casualties were members of the main leftist
guerrilla group associated with the Colombian drug trade, the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. If so, it would be
the first clash between that group and the Ecuadoran Army.

Mr. Llanes and others consider the Manta expansion to be part of Plan
Colombia, the U.S.-backed effort by the Colombian government to turn
up the heat on drug lords and the guerrillas who protect them.
Washington has earmarked about $1.3 billion for the program.

Under the plan, U.S. spy planes, using radar, cameras and
communications-intercept equipment, can pinpoint low-flying
drug-smuggling aircraft, clandestine labs, cultivation fields and
transit routes. Information is then passed instantly to the police and
soldiers in the countries below for interdiction; it also goes to
authorities in the United States, so they can intercept incoming
planes or boats.

In Ecuador, the critics also contend that the United States will pay
no rent at Manta and signed the deal to build the AWACS facility with
a former president, Jamil Mahuad, who is now in exile in the United
States while under indictment locally on charges of abuse of power.
Mr. Mahuad was overthrown in a military coup 12 months ago.

Opponents of the U.S. operation view it as the latest aspect of a
pattern of expanding U.S. influence in the country. Ecuador last year
adopted the U.S. dollar as the national currency, which many people
see as giving Washington influence over the economy. U.S. diplomats
also have pressured the country on political issues.

All of this leads to talk among Ecuadorans that their country is
turning into the "new Panama" - a reference to the influence
Washington held over that country, which also used the dollar and was
viewed by many Latin Americans as a de facto 51st state. Ecuador is
becoming "a sold-out country," Mr. Llanes said. "I fear we will pay
with more than our pride."

U.S. officials are well aware of these feelings and go out of their
way to soothe local sensibilities. The 150 servicemen at Manta wear
civilian clothes when they ride vans and four wheel-drive vehicles
between the base and the luxury hotel and high-rise apartments in
which they live. Some take part in local volunteer work. U.S.
officials argue, moreover, that the mission in Ecuador is not directly
linked to Plan Colombia, and they have promised the operation would be
limited to surveillance and that no armed aircraft would be used.

The Americans stress respect for local sovereignty. "The U.S. military
personnel," the U.S. ambassador, Gwen Clare, said, "are there as
guests of the government of Ecuador. The Manta air base is, and will
continue to be, an Ecuadoran facility under the control of Ecuadoran
authorities."

What is being built is known in U.S. military jargon as a Forward
Operating Location, or FOL - U.S. officials avoid calling it a base.
The idea is that it will help create a new geographic net for tracking
drug trafficking by being linked to three smaller facilities in El
Salvador and the Dutch-Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curacao.

According to U.S. authorities, by mid-2002, the annual number of
missions out of the four sites will top the 2,000 flights once flown
annually out of Panama. Ecuador in particular is located within easy
range of both Peru and Bolivia, key countries for growing the leaf
used to make cocaine. It also borders ground zero, Colombia, where
cocaine production over the past year was projected to increase - at
least in part because of fewer surveillance flights, according to analysts.

Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug control policy director who left
his post this month, said in a recent interview that "from a
geostrategic standpoint, we're going to be better off than we ever
were in Panama. These new operations offer us the opportunity for far
greater coverage than we've ever had in the region."

U.S. officials argue that the new arrangement will be very
cost-effective. The total cost of infrastructure improvements at all
four locations was expected to total $116 million, with yearly
maintenance estimated at $14 million, officials said. No rent will be
paid at any of them.

The price is far less than a full U.S. base in the region would cost,
according to Steve Lucas, spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command in
Miami. "Compare that to the $78.5 million we paid for operations
during just the last year in Panama," he said.

The Clinton administration and U.S. military officials came under fire
from congressional Republicans and other domestic critics because the
sites were only partly - in some cases, minimally - functional before
operations ended at the Panama base. In Ecuador, where the Manta
facility is still only 10 percent complete 14 months after the
agreement was signed, political and legal resistance to the U.S.
presence has played a role in the delays.

The trouble, at least in part, stemmed from the ouster of Mr. Mahuad
last January. Intense pressure from the U.S. State Department forced
the military to back down, allowing a civilian, Gustavo Noboa, then
Mr. Mahuad's vice president, to assume the presidency.

While demanding that the United States raise its $70 million in annual
financial assistance dramatically - in large part to offset what it
sees as dangers caused by Plan Colombia - the Noboa administration is
nevertheless supporting the Manta operation.

"The message we are sending to drug traffickers is that we don't want
you here," Foreign Minister Heinz Moeller said in a recent interview.
"We are going to stick with whatever friends we find, and in this
case, it is the government and the people of the United States."

Also enthusiastic are local politicians and merchants. Jorge Zambrano,
mayor of Manta, a port city of 220,000 about 240 kilometers (150
miles) west of Quito, the capital, said the improved runway would help
with air exports of tuna and shrimp, the region's main industries.

Some residents think the Americans will spark an economic boom;
already restaurants that cater to them have raised prices by up to 40
percent. There is talk of building new hotels, and city officials are
conferring with Continental Airlines about starting direct flights to
the United States.
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