The People of Ecuador Reject the Return of US Military Bases
In a national referendum, more than 60% of Ecuadorians roundly opposed proposals to lift a longstanding ban on foreign bases and make significant changes to the revolutionary 2008 Constitution of Montecristi. The significance of this victory cannot be understated.
President Daniel Noboa, whose neoliberal assault on Ecuador’s working people has escalated drastically in recent months, promoted the referendum under the guise of improving national “security”. The vote, however, was considered a decisive step in erasing the legacy of former President Rafael Correa’s “Citizens’ Revolution” and reconfiguring the structure of the plurinational state.
As the Trump Administration looks to reassert the Monroe Doctrine in Latin America, Ecuador’s rejection effectively blocks the US military from returning to the Manta airbase — closed in 2009 in accordance with the constitutional mandate — on the Pacific coast, once a hub for Washington’s anti-drug operations.
In recent weeks, extrajudicial attacks on small boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific have killed more than 70 people as the US prepares for war in Venezuela. Noboa, who takes inspiration from the repressive practices of El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, has enthusiastically supported the bombing campaign. Last week, anticipating referendum victory, the Ecuadorian President welcomed the US Homeland Security Secretary to Quito to tour the nation’s military installations.
Yet, just as the USS Gerald R Ford — the world’s largest and most expensive aircraft carrier — reached the Caribbean coast, the people of Ecuador struck a blow against imperial expansion, decisively opposing President Trump’s efforts to destabilize the region.
Plans to establish a Constituent Assembly on a fast-track basis to draft a new constitution, replacing the 2008 Montecristi text, were also rejected. In a historic first, the Montecristi Constitution recognized the Rights of Nature and prohibited fossil fuel extraction in protected areas.
Noboa — the son of Ecuador’s richest man — proposed that the Assembly would fully redraft the Constitution within a minimum 180-day period, imperiling existing guarantees of social, economic, cultural, and human rights; environmental protections; the plurinational character of the state; and public stewardship of strategic sectors.
The Progressive International salutes the people of Ecuador for their successful defense of the 2008 Montecristi Constitution — reaffirming their sovereignty, hard-won rights and democratic controls.
Sustainable public security is achieved through social justice, and regional cooperation — not subjugation.