Noboa wants constitutional change to allow U.S. anti-drug operations to return to Ecuador

President Daniel Noboa will ask the National Assembly to change the constitution to allow foreign military bases on Ecuadorian soil, he said Monday via a post on X. The United States previously operated a military base at Manta to combat drug trafficking, but former President Rafael Correa ordered U.S. troops to leave in 2009.

President Daniel Noboa speaks at a military event Monday in Manta.

Ecuador’s most recent constitution, adopted in 2008 during Correa’s administration, prohibits the presence of foreign military installations on Ecuadorian territory.

“Today we will present a partial constitutional reform to the Assembly which substantially modifies article 5 of the constitution that prohibits the establishment of foreign military bases for military purposes. In a transnational conflict we need a national and international response,” Noboa said in the message.

In January, Noboa declared Ecuador was fighting an “internal war” to end violence between gangs linked to drug trafficking cartels.

“We are rebuilding the country that has been left on its knees by previous governments,” Noboa said. “This is a country that they turned into a cradle for drug trafficking, that they distributed to the mafias with a false notion of sovereignty,” Noboa said in a video recorded from the Manta military base.

In recent weeks, Noboa and other members of his government have claimed that actions coinciding with the closure of U.S. anti-drug operations at Manta opened the door to Mexican and Colombia drug cartels to enter the country and establish Ecuador’s ports as major shipping channels for drugs, primarily cocaine, headed to Europe and the U.S.

According to Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld, drug shipments from the ports at Guayaquil, Manta and Machala were “minimal” while the U.S. operated surveillance flights and naval patrols from Manta. “After U.S. personnel left, we saw a steady and rapid rise in shipments based on seizures,” she said. “We have gathered irrefutable evidence of a direct correlation with the closing of the base and entry into the country of drug traffickers.”

Last week, Noboa ordered an investigation into the possible coverup of murders during the government of Correa, as well as the subsequent governments of Lenin Moreno and Guillermo Lasso. In an interview about the order, Noboa said there was “firm evidence” that Correa knew that closing the anti-narcotics operation at Manta would allow the drug trade to expand in Ecuador. “The evidence also suggests that he held talks with drug cartels and gangs, knowing this would happen, and then concealed murders when the cartels began fighting for turf.”

Naboa’s and Sommerfeld’s suspicious were bolstered by a recent study by University of Chicago researcher Arduino Tomasi. Tomasi claims that that 7,700 murders were reclassified during Correa’s presidency “from murder to undetermined cause” status.

Tomasi said the number of deaths labelled “undetermined cause” rose more than 800% following the closure of the Manta base. Tomasi claimed, based on his research, that almost all the reclassified deaths involved “extreme violence, consistent with drug cartel killings.”

In interviews with Ecuadorian media, Tomasi said Correa was aware that by ending U.S. anti-drug operations, Colombian drug cartels would expand cocaine exports through Ecuadorian ports. “He [Correa] also knew that murders would increase substantially as the cartels and gangs fought for dominance in the new market,” Tomasi told Ecuador Envivo. “Correa wanted to conceal from the public the surge in murders and had them reclassified.”