Military Bases and 'Aid Packages': Noboa Accelerates Ecuador's Ties with Washington

Just hours after the elections, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa spoke with Marco Rubio and made a “personal” trip to the United States, stating that he would like to establish a US military base in his country. According to experts consulted by Sputnik, the US could use Ecuador in its “geostrategic” plans for the Pacific Ocean.

Although the election results of April 13 are still being questioned by the opposition party Citizen Revolution, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa left the country to travel to the United States, his most frequent destination since arriving at the Carondelet Palace in November 2023.

According to the Ecuadorian media outlet Primicias, the decree formalizing the trip indicates that the president will be in Florida between April 17 and 22 to “attend to personal matters.” His only companion, according to the document, will be his “head of security.”

The trip comes hours after Noboa held a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The US office reported that the conversation addressed the “shared commitment to protecting the citizens of both countries by opposing narcoterrorists, transnational criminal organizations, illegal immigration, drugs, and malign foreign influence in our hemisphere,” as well as “regional challenges such as those in Haiti and Venezuela.”

“Immediately after the election results, and at a time when he is still facing questions from various governments about the legitimacy of the electoral process, what the president is doing is seeking the geopolitical support of his northern ally, the United States,” political analyst Decio Machado told Sputnik.

For Machado, Noboa’s trip aims not only to gain “support in a context in which some countries like Mexico, Colombia, and Honduras are questioning the result,” but also to “put himself at the service of US President Donald Trump,” as part of Noboa’s strategy to consolidate himself as “a privileged partner of the US.”

Also speaking with Sputnik, sociologist and international political analyst Irene León recalled that relations with the US have been “a priority” of Noboa’s foreign policy during the year and a half of his term, which began in 2023, and appear as a pillar of the electoral proposal put to a vote on April 13. According to the expert, this relationship has “militarization and ties with the US corporate sector as its main pillars.”

León believed that, in a second term, Noboa would focus on “expanding Ecuador’s role in US military plans,” not only through the establishment of US military bases on Ecuadorian soil but also by providing the South American country as a staging ground for “the Pentagon’s plans for the South Pacific.”

“With the military agreements signed since late 2022, the US now has the power to land in Ecuador with impunity by air, land, sea, and cyberspace. Noboa places great emphasis not only on ensuring that this continues, but also on expanding that capacity with the creation of military bases,” the academic explained.

Indeed, just hours after the elections, Noboa gave an interview to CNN in which he stated that Washington was awaiting the results of the April 13 elections to begin advancing support for Ecuador in matters of defense, with “intelligence systems, radars, border protection, and monitoring of drug trafficking, illegal fishing, and irregular groups near the border dedicated to illegal mining.”

For the president, his election victory will allow the talks to turn into “real aid packages,” and he admitted that he would “love” to have US troops in the country, including a “joint” military base. The president’s comments fuel rumors about the Ecuadorian government’s intention to reestablish a US military base in the city of Manta, located on the Pacific coast and which previously served as a US base between 1999 and 2009.

Machado, for his part, recalled that the Noboa administration has also speculated about the possibility of allowing US operations from the Galapagos Islands, which could be of “geopolitical interest” to Washington. However, he insisted that the level of progress of these maneuvers will depend more on US interests than on Noboa’s proposals.

“The US may be interested in this within its disputed territory policy toward Latin America. In that context, Ecuador appears to be a government that prioritizes relations with the US over Chinese investments,” the analyst explained.

León also considered that “it is unlikely” that the Trump administration will not take advantage of the agreements made with Ecuador by the Joe Biden administration (2021–2025) to secure its presence in Ecuadorian territory, given that there remains “maximum interest in the reoccupation of Latin America and the Caribbean and the recomposition of a hemispheric project to have control of its resources.”

Is constitutional reform closer?
León recalled that, to successfully establish US bases, Noboa must reform the 2008 Constitution, which expressly prohibits the establishment of foreign military bases in the country. For this reason, there is speculation that reelection will give Noboa the impetus to fulfill his promise of a Constituent Assembly to remove this restriction.

“Noboa has fervently called for the presence of US military personnel and has argued that the Ecuadorian Constitution is a hindrance to the development of his security proposals,” the analyst noted.

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In fact, the day after the elections, Noboa’s minister of government (chief of staff), José de la Gasca, confirmed that drafting a new constitution would be one of the first priorities of the re-elected government.

Machado lamented that, although the idea that a US base in the country could be effective against domestic organized crime “has little basis,” the Ecuadorian population does not seem to view the measure with such unfavorable eyes.

“The overwhelming popular sentiment is that we must do whatever it takes to fight crime, and this base is being marketed as a strategic tool in that endeavor,” he emphasized, venturing that there likely won’t be any major popular mobilizations against the government if it decides to open foreign bases in the country.

(Sputnik) by Sergio Pintado

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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