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The US presence in the South American country is so prominent that it goes far beyond the cooperation agreements or the association law in question.
By Gustavo Veiga, taken from page 12
The future of Ecuador It won’t just be decided in the elections on October 15th. It also depends on what happens with the call Act of Association with the United States of 2022. A regulation passed in the US Congress with shortcomings of the Monroe Doctrine. A kind of colonial recipe book that shows how to counter “negative foreign influences” (textually). The project was developed by a Republican hawk, Marco Rubio, and another Democrat, Bob Menéndez, shows that the two parties have a clear view of foreign policy. They turned their attention to a country plagued by drug cartels and local criminal gangs, which became an opportunity to dust off the so-called Plan Colombia, but this time referring to its neighbor.
The initiative, which was already rejected by the Ecuadorian National Assembly in June last year, is linked to a memorandum of understanding between the governments of Ecuador signed on July 19th Joe Biden and Guillermo Lasso to strengthen the military capacity of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces. But also, expands Washington’s enormous influence on the ground which is increasingly notorious due to its embassy in Quito, the CIA and the DEA.
The United States-Ecuador Association Act delegates to the Secretary of State – now Antony Blinken – “a strategy” and the implementation of “related programs to increase the capacity of the judicial system and authorities (…) to combat illicit economic activity, corruption and transnational corporations. “Criminal organizations.” If it were an internal standard for the US, it would go unnoticed. But it is intended for another nation, it was adopted in the North American Congress on December 15 – four days before a visit by Lasso to Biden – even though the legislature in Quito rejected it.
The bill was presented in Washington during a joint press conference attended by Lasso, Menéndez and Ecuador’s Ambassador to the United States, Ivonne A-Baki. The US Senator expressed his counter-current opinion on what is happening in the South American country: “It has emerged as a model in Latin America and the Caribbean for its continuous efforts to strengthen democratic governance and human rights and promote inclusive economic growth, that brings benefits to all its citizens and takes measures to strengthen security, the rule of law and environmental protection.” The then Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Juan Carlos Holguín, celebrated the idea: “It is the first time that a legislative proposal (dated US Senate) focused exclusively on relations with Ecuador…”.
Like any initiative emanating from Congress, it aims to “advance the fundamental national security interests of the United States,” but with the strange argument of combating “negative foreign influence.” For James Monroe, 200 years ago, it was “America for the Americans” when he viewed Europe as a geopolitical enemy. Are Menéndez, Rubio and the other senators who voted for the bill now thinking primarily about China and Russia?
The US presence in Ecuador is so prominent that it goes far beyond the cooperation agreements or the Association Act. By arguing to support environmental protection measures, Washington is repeating a geostrategic policy that has spanned three centuries. In 1883, the U.S. Senate declared the Galapagos Islands “no man’s land” and questioned Ecuador’s sovereignty over the archipelago. In 1910, the United States wanted to lease the islands for 99 years for $15 million, but the offer was rejected. During World War II, power returned and occupied Galapagos militarily. After the war ended, the USA extended their stay until December 1948 and caused major environmental damage by building the airstrip on one of the islands, Baltra.
Many years later, and already during the government of Lenin Moreno, the return of the United States to this place was favored thanks to a contract to carry out military flights. Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrín even said in 2019 that the Galapagos Islands were “a natural aircraft carrier” to justify the presence of US spy planes and made Ecuador a base of operations for the Southern Command, which President Lasso consolidated.
The current argument to justify this policy is no longer the Japanese Empire after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This is a repeated explanation: the threat of drug trafficking. The country regressed in the late 1990s when former President Jamil Mahuad handed over the Manta base to the United States, which another former president, Rafael Correa, was able to vacate in September 2009.
The current US ambassador to Ecuador, Michael Fitzpatrick, is very active and, like any Washington representative, has a high profile in a country that is very sensitive to its interests. Ecuador, like Colombia before it, became a new opportunity to justify its presence in the region with all kinds of resources. The Lasso administration remains a privileged ally of the Biden administration to this day. The DEA is a key instrument of this support, with the stated aim of curbing the drug trade that controls several enclaves in the country.
On July 19, a memorandum of understanding was signed with the aim of strengthening the operational capability of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces. Almost a month later, on August 17, the Ecuadorian president posted on Equipment for operational capability, maintenance, training, and logistical, command, control and communications support. We need this support to strengthen national security so that our Air Force has better equipment, capabilities and information to track criminal organizations’ aircraft. We must be better prepared and stronger. “Organized crime will not stop us.”
It’s not just the threat of drug trafficking that justifies the US remaining in the country. A more benign purpose such as environmental and climate change policy, through agreements funded by USAID, the World Wildlife Found (WWF) and the local Ministry of the Environment, aims to counter illegal fishing in the Pacific Ocean, which washes the Ecuadorian coast and the shores of the Galapagos Islands .
Always working together in the service of just causes, Washington wants to “work with other democratic partners to maintain a prosperous, politically stable and democratic Western Hemisphere that is resistant to negative foreign influences,” as supported by the project of Republicans and Democrats in Congress It will be voted on in 2022. A by no means subtle legislative intervention that attempts to influence the life of a sovereign country. It comes on top of other militaristic initiatives that have a bad reputation in our unredeemed America. The diplomacy of the gunboats, the politics of the greats, the coups, the soft coups… It all began with the Monroe Doctrine, which turns 200 years old on December 2nd.
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