Pubdate: Thu, 15 Mar 2001
Source: Salt Lake Tribune (UT)
Copyright: 2001 The Salt Lake Tribune
Contact:  143 S Main, Salt Lake City UT 84111
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Author: Monte Hayes, The Associated Press

Ecuador Fears U.S. Buildup May Bring Drug War

MANTA, Ecuador -- American airmen armed with M-16 assault rifles keep a 
close watch on U.S. Navy spy planes parked on a runway at an airfield on 
the outskirts of this Pacific port.

The Ecuadorean air base has become the new hub of U.S. surveillance flights 
over the vast cocaine-producing areas of South America, and the U.S. 
military guards have reason to be vigilant.

The drug-fueled violence that Ecuadoreans long feared would spill over the 
Colombian border has arrived -- intensifying a debate over the wisdom of 
giving the United States a foothold close to the troubled frontier.

Many Ecuadoreans worry their country is being set up as a staging ground 
for U.S. intervention in Colombia and could be sucked into a regional conflict.

"We support the base being used to fight drug trafficking," Antonio Posso, 
an influential congressman, said in an interview in Quito, the capital. 
"But the base apparently is being used also to put together an operation to 
fight Colombia's guerrillas, which involves us in a conflict that is not 
Ecuador's."

The United States is spending $62 million to expand and improve the Manta 
runway and build hangars, dormitories and a dining hall. The number of U.S. 
servicemen assigned to Manta has risen to 125 and that figure will reach 
400 after construction work is completed in October.

At that point, giant U.S. AWACS surveillance planes and tankers to refuel 
them will replace the smaller Navy aircraft, allowing the United States to 
monitor air and marine activity far into the Caribbean.

The United States maintains the Manta base will remain under Ecuadorean 
control and is being used only as an observation post to track 
drug-smuggling aircraft and boats. U.S. officials insist it has nothing to 
do with the $1.3 billion U.S. aid package for the counternarcotics 
offensive in Colombia.

Despite the controversy, residents of Manta are delighted with the prospect 
of millions of dollars pouring in at a time when Ecuador is trying to dig 
its way out of its deepest economic crisis in decades.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager