By Pablo Meriguet and Benjamin Zinevich*
QUITO, Ecuador | 23 December 2024 (IDN) — On 15 February 2024, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboasigned a series military cooperation treaties with the US government, allowing ships, military personnel, armament, equipment, and submarines to be installed in the natural reserve, which UNESCO declared a World Natural Heritage Site in 1978.
Noboa’s predecessor, Guillermo Lasso, signed the agreements regarding joint operations to combat illegal maritime activity and the status of US troops in the country in September 2023. They were ratified by the young president after a ruling by the Constitutional Court on 23 January 2024 that the agreements do not have to go through the legislature.
In doing so, Noboa ratified the Washington Agreement, signed by former President Guillermo Lasso. The agreement grants US soldiers and their contractors several privileges, exemptions, and immunity in Ecuadorian territory, similar to those enjoyed by members of diplomatic missions as agreed on in the Vienna Convention.
According to Resolution No. 23-CGREG-10-12-2024 adopted by the Governing Council of the Galapagos Provincial Regime, the execution of the so-called Integral Security Project in the Insular Region was approved, which empowers US troops to operate in the Ecuadorian islands without paying the administrative taxes that other entities have to pay.
The official document states that the arrival of US troops seeks to diminish the agency of local drug traffickers, which, in alliance with transnational cartels, have caused a serious security crisis in the country.
Noboa has raised the possibility of reforming the Constitution of the Republic, which prohibits the establishment of foreign military bases. At that time, he sent a bill to the National Assembly which would enable the possibility to reestablish foreign military bases in Ecuador, a country that has already ceded its national sovereignty three times in favour of the US military (twice during World War II and once at the beginning of the XXI century). With this political manoeuvre, Noboa hopes that a US military base will soon be installed in Ecuador.
Noboa’s decision has been harshly criticized by various political sectors of the country. Ecuadorian environmentalists have pointed out that “The Galapagos ecosystem is one of the most sensitive on the planet, home to endemic and fragile species that have been conserved for generations. The construction of a military base and the presence of military equipment in the area could generate irreparable damage to this environment.”
Similarly, several left political sectors have raised their voice of suspicion against the cession of national sovereignty to a foreign army. “The National Assembly should request information and oversee the security cooperation agreements signed with [the United States] and their execution protocols, which respond to the strategic interests of that country and reflect the shameful submission of our foreign policy. Wake up [Ecuador]!” said former Secretary of State, Fernando Yépez Lasso.
For his part, former presidential candidate, Andres Arauz, wrote in his X account “I am hurt because they want to turn an ecological paradise, a world heritage site, islands full of peace, into a brothel for US Navy sailors and convert the economy of the islands to dependence on gringo military spending.
I am hurt because a gringo president who claims to be Ecuadorian [Daniel Noboa] has surrendered the sovereignty of my country. “I am hurt because he does not care that our most precious paradise is a foreign military base to control the Pacific in the context of interstate war. To combat drug trafficking, warships are not needed. You need gringos to CONSUME LESS DRUGS with aggressive public health programs that disrupt domestic trafficking networks in the largest cities in the US.”
Note: This article combines reports the Peoplesdispatch carried on 19 December and 20 February 2024.[IDN-InDepthNews]
Photo: Giant tortoise of the Galapagos Islands. Photo: Felix Reyes / Wikimedia Commons
