ECUADOR: Plan Colombia, Manta Base at Centre of Campaign

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Kintto Lucas

QUITO, Sep 22 2006 (IPS) - Accusations that a new phase of Plan Colombia would directly affect Ecuador has landed the country’s Manta air base at the centre of the campaign for the Oct. 15 elections, as candidates address growing pressure to cancel the agreement that leased the facilities to the United States.

The new Plan Colombia Consolidation Phase was first denounced in Ecuador two weeks ago by indigenous leader and presidential candidate for the leftist Pachakutik Movement, Luis Macas, citing anonymous official sources from Ecuador’s armed forces.

“This new Plan Colombia phase aims to consolidate the presence of the Colombian army in guerrilla-controlled areas, through a military and paramilitary offensive that would have direct support from the Manta base and would make use of neighbouring country border territories, particularly in Ecuador,” Macas told IPS.

He said the Defence Ministry and the armed forces, both aware of the new Plan Colombia phase, are worried about what it will mean for Ecuador.

“The new phase also aims to amass an Ecuadorian military presence on the border with Colombia – not to protect our sovereignty, but rather to draw the country further into the (four-decade) Colombian armed conflict. That’s why most of the military troops who were stationed on the Peruvian border were moved to northern Ecuador along the Colombian border a few days ago,” said Macas.

Former Colombian president Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002), upon leaving his post as ambassador to the United States two weeks ago, told the Colombian press that over the next few months the U.S. financed-Plan Colombia would be entering into a five-year “consolidation phase.”

According to Pastrana, Plan Colombia, which was launched with heavy U.S. military assistance in 2000, has achieved its primary objective of strengthening the Colombian State in its war against drug traffickers and leftist guerrillas.

However, he believes the new stage is necessary to consolidate the reported successes and reinforce ties between Bogotá and Washington, which are negotiating a free trade agreement.

“We are on the threshold of a new relationship with the United States, in which the second phase of Plan Colombia will play a key role,” said Pastrana.

Macas also said that the Consolidation Phase will seek to strengthen the U.S. military presence at Manta, the country’s main Pacific port, 260 kilometres southwest of Quito, thus drawing Ecuador into Colombia’s civil war.

“Under the Consolidation Phase, if we stick with the Manta base agreement our armed forces will end up subordinate to U.S. and Colombian forces. That’s why the Manta base lease should be cancelled immediately – we can’t afford to wait until 2009, when it officially expires,” said Macas.

Social democratic candidate León Roldós, the front-runner in the elections, said if he is elected president he will demand monetary compensation from Colombia and the United States for the indirect impact Plan Colombia has had on Ecuador.

Plan Colombia was initially touted as an anti-drug strategy, but in 2004 it evolved into Plan Patriot, an all-out counterinsurgency offensive.

“We used to have about 1,000 soldiers stationed along the Colombian border, now there are 12,000 to 14,000 – this costs money. There is also the issue of people displaced (by the violence), which has created pockets of Colombians in Ecuador. Not to mention the aerial spraying (of coca crops) and other material damages – we need to negotiate these things,” Roldós emphasised Monday in a press conference in Quito.

He added that he would not renew the Manta base agreement in 2009, despite the fact that Washington representatives have said they would be seeking an extension to 2012.

Ecuador’s Defence Minister, retired General Marcelo Delgado, said this week that his country has received “almost nothing for the Manta Base.”

“We deserve to receive something in exchange,” if the agreement is to be renewed, he said, underlining that “if we are not going to, we shouldn’t be negotiating.”

The minister also rejected the notion that U.S. troops operating from Manta are involved in Plan Colombia, but his comments directly contradict statements by U.S. officials published a few weeks ago in the Expreso de Guayaquil newspaper.

Manta base Commander Xavier Deluca, and the commander of the base’s special Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) squadron, Rich Boyd, in an interview with the newspaper’s editor, Juan Carlos Calderón, revealed that the United States considers Manta as “key to Plan Colombia,” and that Colombian Air Force officers operate from the facilities.

Last week, the Tintají de Quito magazine published statements from a confidential source in the Ecuadorian army, who described a “major debate within the institution regarding the country’s increased involvement in Colombia’s civil war,” and saying that a significant faction “opposes the possible renewal of the Manta base agreement.”

“We will do all in our power to prevent this agreement from being renewed, because it is bad for the country. However, to successfully block this renewal, we are looking to create alliances with major social forces in Ecuador, particularly the indigenous movement, which is the only group capable of bringing the country to its knees,” said the source quoted by Tintají.

Another element was introduced to the Plan Colombia debate last week when the local daily El Universo reported that the delegate for the Organisation of American States (OAS) office in Colombia, Sergio Caramagna, claimed to have “information” attesting to the rearming of more than 1,500 demobilised paramilitaries in various regions of the country – particularly along the border with Ecuador.

Meanwhile, former Colombian foreign minister Carolina Barco, upon replacing Pastrana as ambassador to the United States, told the Colombian press that “it is not the time to ease up on Plan Colombia efforts.”