As crime surges, Ecuador to vote on return of foreign military bases

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By Alexandra Valencia

QUITO (Reuters) -Ecuadoreans grappling with a surge in violent crime will head to the polls on Sunday to decide whether to allow the return of foreign military bases — which President Daniel Noboa says are central to fighting organized crime – and whether they back convening an assembly to rewrite the constitution.  

Once considered one of the safest countries in Latin America, Ecuador has become a key drug transit hub in recent years because of its location on the Pacific, triggering an unprecedented security crisis and battering its already-fragile economy.

Recent polls show majority support for convening the constitutional assembly, but voters appear divided on the military bases.

Noboa argues the current constitution, drafted under former leftist President Rafael Correa, must be revised to reflect the country’s new reality and expand international cooperation in combating crime.

“They wrote the rules to protect themselves. Today, Ecuador chooses a different path,” Noboa wrote this week on X.

Washington, which has praised Noboa as an “excellent partner” in efforts to curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking, has carried out strikes on more than a dozen suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, resulting in over 70 deaths.

Authorities have said a no vote on the military bases question will not derail security plans. Noboa ratified two agreements for joint military operations with the U.S. last year and the two countries also maintain an aerial interception agreement, enabling drug and weapons seizures at sea.

The coastal city of Manta hosted U.S. military personnel for a decade until 2009, when Correa declined to renew their presence and constitutionally banned foreign bases. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently toured military facilities in Manta and an air base in Salinas alongside Noboa.

Drug seizures dropped by more than 70% in the year following the closure of the Manta base, Interior Minister John Reimberg told a local radio station on Tuesday, due to the suspension of joint interdiction operations.

But the possible return of foreign bases is more about geopolitics than domestic security, said Luis Cordova, lead researcher at the Ecuadorean Conflict Observatory, adding Ecuador instead needs better intelligence infrastructure: “Ecuador doesn’t lack cooperation — it lacks public management to address the problem.”

And some voters have sovereignty concerns.

“We won’t allow our country to become a war zone for the United States’ ambitions,” said Jeronimo Ludena, a 55-year-old lawyer in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s most dangerous city. “We must not mortgage our sovereignty.”

Between January and September, Ecuador seized 146.4 metric tons of drugs, down from 208 tons during the same period in 2024. Violent deaths rose more than 36% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2025.

(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito, additional reporting by Yury Garcia in Guayaquil, Editing by Alexandra Hudson)