Reply #1: Colombia offers U.S. an antidrug military base

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Thu, Jul. 12, 2007
Colombia offers U.S. an antidrug military base
BY BILL FARIES AND HELEN MURPHY
Bloomberg News Service

Colombia has offered the U.S. government an alternative base for counter-drug surveillance flights if Ecuador evicts it from its largest South American military outpost, according to a senior U.S. defense official.

Colombia said it would accommodate U.S. planes and troops now based at Ecuador's Eloy Alfaro airfield in the northern city of Manta, the official said. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who says the base compromises his country's sovereignty, has pledged not to renew a 10-year lease that allows 500 U.S. troops and eight aircraft at Manta. The accord expires in 2009.

''This decision would increase the sense that Colombia is the outpost of greatest U.S. support in the region and that Uribe remains a strong ally,'' said Christopher Sabatini, policy director at the New York-based Council of the Americas. ''This would be met with a fair amount of popular support,'' Sabatini said by phone from Bolivia.
(snip)

Venezuela, which shares a 1,364-mile border with Colombia, isn't an option for a new base. Chávez first ended cooperation with U.S. counter-narcotics authorities in 2005, accusing them of maintaining ''secret bases'' in his country. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said on May 9 that the U.S. government protects Latin American drug cartels.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/168372.html