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Ecuador to Evict U.S., Offer Air Base to China
When the U.S. Air Force Southern Command's 10-year usage rights for
Ecuador's Manta air base expire in 2009, it can expect to be evicted.
An earlier version of this article appeared on UpsideDownWorld.
When the U.S. Air Force Southern Command's 10-year usage rights for
Ecuador's Manta air base expire in 2009, it can expect to be evicted
in favor of China.
President Jamil Mahuad signed a 10-year lease agreement with the U.S.
military in 1999. The Manta base is not geopolitically important for
U.S. national security, but the Southern Command (South Com) currently
uses it to combat illegal cocaine trade in the "source zone" of
Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. The air base shares a common runway with
Quito's Eloy Alfaro International Airport terminal, but the air base
has a separate office for cargo, while the airport handles passengers.
About 475 U.S. military personnel are stationed at the air base under
a 10-year agreement signed with Quito in November 1999, which is due
to expire in 24 months.
Acording to Latin Americanist Marc Becker, the agreement with the U.S.
military "has proved to be unpopular and, some argue,
unconstitutional. The purported purpose of the FOL was to help
interdict drug shipments from neighboring Colombia, but opponents
contend that the U.S. government has ... move[d] well beyond that
mandate into counterinsurgency and anti-immigrant activities." There
are also complaints that the base was consolidated by expropriating
land from indigenous groups and small farmers, and that it is being
used by Colombian pilots and as a center of anti-guerilla intelligence
as a part of Plan Colombia, and for the targeting of alleged terrorist
groups. From March 5 to 9, 2007, more than 400 activists gathered in
Manta for the first International Conference for the Abolition of
Foreign Military Bases. They chose Manta due to the new government's
stance against continued U.S. presence.
When Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa was campaigning in 2006, he
promised to make the contract renewal with the U.S. contingent on a
reciprocal agreement allowing Ecuador to build or station military on
an air base in Miami, Fla. The United States rejected this idea, and
Correa offered the base to the Terminales del Ecuador, a subsidiary of
Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings [HPH] during to Beijing on
Nov. 21. China would most likely use the base for cargo transit in
trade rather than for security purposes. Strategic Forecasting
(STRATFOR) predicts that Correa's offer is "aimed partly at
maintaining domestic support, partly at extracting preferential trade
access to U.S. markets (something Washington probably will cave in to
and deliver), and partly at securing Chinese capital for fulfilling
Manta's future role as the largest Sino-Latin American trade
trans-shipment hub on the South American west coast."
Correa's presidential campaign also focused on the need to improve
regional transport and trade in order to compete with ports in Peru,
Colombia and Chile, and to link to industry in Brazil. Some of the
roads planned between the Andean countries would also connect
waterways linking Ecuador and Brazil. The agreement will create
profits for Brazil as well as Ecuador, as the two countries recently
signed an agreement to link Manta to the city of Manaus by railway or
highway corridor. According to the government, the details of this
project have already been discussed with other interested Chinese
investment firms. This corridor project is a key part of IIRSA, the
South American regional infrastructure integration initiative.
Since before his election, Correa has also emphasized the necessity of
attracting Asian investment in order to upgrade infrastructure and
therefore expand regional and international trade. In offering the
Manta base to HPH, he said that he was offering Chinese investors a
"geopolitical window" that would make Ecuador a bridge for accessing
markets in South America.
Chinese investment and U.S. relations
Chinese investment in Manta began when Chinese, Chilean, Singaporean,
Japanese and U.S. port companies expressed interest in the Manta port
(not the air base). In October, HPH gave a $1 million bond to the MPA
.. In November 2006, HPH was the only final bidder and the Manta Port
Authority (MPA) gave HPH operating concessions in exchange for $486
million (added to $55 million promised by the MPA) to upgrade
facilities over the next 30 years.
According to Business News Americas, Hutchinson Port Holdings (HPH) is
the port-operating subsidiary of Hong Kong's Hutchison-Whampoa. The
company focuses "on trans-Pacific/Atlantic corridor cargo trade" and
has a portfolio of ports in Latin America. "In 2001 it bought out
Philippines-based port operator ICTSI, which had various Latin
American interests in Argentina, Mexico and the Bahamas. In Panama,
HPH's Panama Port Co. operates the ports of Cristobal and Balboa.
Manta is the closest port to Asia on South America's west coast."
Manta is a desirable port for HPH as it is the closest port to Asia on
Latin America's west coast. The Manta deal could also help smooth out
a disagreement between Ecuador and China's major state energy players
over the October increase of Ecuador's windfall oil tax. The next
steps would involve HPH accepting the post-2009 concession for Manta's
air base (it already controls the sea port), and another Chinese
investment firm's participation in financing the road-rail network
between Manta and Manaus, Brazil.
According to STRATFOR, "While this is not the first time China has
been made such an offer by a Latin American nation, it is the first
time U.S. geopolitical interests in the region have been so closely
brushed up against." They forecast that "from a security perspective,
a Chinese military presence in the Western Hemisphere would be viewed
by the United States as a hostile move and would almost inevitably
invite the Pentagon's ire." However, they predict that Beijing, and
especially the People's Liberation Army, will try to maintain good
relations with the United States to prevent remunerative trade
policies such as tariffs.
There is a historical irony to this turn of events, though neither
governments nor corporations are likely to see it as such. Sanho Tree
of the Institute for Policy Studies notes, "It's ironic that it is
China, and not a European power, that would challenge the Monroe
Doctrine. The irony is doubled as China turns the original U.S. Open
Door Policy of 1900 (designed to allow U.S. access to Chinese markets)
back on the United States to get better access to Latin American
markets."
When the U.S. Air Force Southern Command's 10-year usage rights for
Ecuador's Manta air base expire in 2009, it can expect to be evicted.
An earlier version of this article appeared on UpsideDownWorld.
When the U.S. Air Force Southern Command's 10-year usage rights for
Ecuador's Manta air base expire in 2009, it can expect to be evicted
in favor of China.
President Jamil Mahuad signed a 10-year lease agreement with the U.S.
military in 1999. The Manta base is not geopolitically important for
U.S. national security, but the Southern Command (South Com) currently
uses it to combat illegal cocaine trade in the "source zone" of
Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. The air base shares a common runway with
Quito's Eloy Alfaro International Airport terminal, but the air base
has a separate office for cargo, while the airport handles passengers.
About 475 U.S. military personnel are stationed at the air base under
a 10-year agreement signed with Quito in November 1999, which is due
to expire in 24 months.
Acording to Latin Americanist Marc Becker, the agreement with the U.S.
military "has proved to be unpopular and, some argue,
unconstitutional. The purported purpose of the FOL was to help
interdict drug shipments from neighboring Colombia, but opponents
contend that the U.S. government has ... move[d] well beyond that
mandate into counterinsurgency and anti-immigrant activities." There
are also complaints that the base was consolidated by expropriating
land from indigenous groups and small farmers, and that it is being
used by Colombian pilots and as a center of anti-guerilla intelligence
as a part of Plan Colombia, and for the targeting of alleged terrorist
groups. From March 5 to 9, 2007, more than 400 activists gathered in
Manta for the first International Conference for the Abolition of
Foreign Military Bases. They chose Manta due to the new government's
stance against continued U.S. presence.
When Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa was campaigning in 2006, he
promised to make the contract renewal with the U.S. contingent on a
reciprocal agreement allowing Ecuador to build or station military on
an air base in Miami, Fla. The United States rejected this idea, and
Correa offered the base to the Terminales del Ecuador, a subsidiary of
Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings [HPH] during to Beijing on
Nov. 21. China would most likely use the base for cargo transit in
trade rather than for security purposes. Strategic Forecasting
(STRATFOR) predicts that Correa's offer is "aimed partly at
maintaining domestic support, partly at extracting preferential trade
access to U.S. markets (something Washington probably will cave in to
and deliver), and partly at securing Chinese capital for fulfilling
Manta's future role as the largest Sino-Latin American trade
trans-shipment hub on the South American west coast."
Correa's presidential campaign also focused on the need to improve
regional transport and trade in order to compete with ports in Peru,
Colombia and Chile, and to link to industry in Brazil. Some of the
roads planned between the Andean countries would also connect
waterways linking Ecuador and Brazil. The agreement will create
profits for Brazil as well as Ecuador, as the two countries recently
signed an agreement to link Manta to the city of Manaus by railway or
highway corridor. According to the government, the details of this
project have already been discussed with other interested Chinese
investment firms. This corridor project is a key part of IIRSA, the
South American regional infrastructure integration initiative.
Since before his election, Correa has also emphasized the necessity of
attracting Asian investment in order to upgrade infrastructure and
therefore expand regional and international trade. In offering the
Manta base to HPH, he said that he was offering Chinese investors a
"geopolitical window" that would make Ecuador a bridge for accessing
markets in South America.
Chinese investment and U.S. relations
Chinese investment in Manta began when Chinese, Chilean, Singaporean,
Japanese and U.S. port companies expressed interest in the Manta port
(not the air base). In October, HPH gave a $1 million bond to the MPA
.. In November 2006, HPH was the only final bidder and the Manta Port
Authority (MPA) gave HPH operating concessions in exchange for $486
million (added to $55 million promised by the MPA) to upgrade
facilities over the next 30 years.
According to Business News Americas, Hutchinson Port Holdings (HPH) is
the port-operating subsidiary of Hong Kong's Hutchison-Whampoa. The
company focuses "on trans-Pacific/Atlantic corridor cargo trade" and
has a portfolio of ports in Latin America. "In 2001 it bought out
Philippines-based port operator ICTSI, which had various Latin
American interests in Argentina, Mexico and the Bahamas. In Panama,
HPH's Panama Port Co. operates the ports of Cristobal and Balboa.
Manta is the closest port to Asia on South America's west coast."
Manta is a desirable port for HPH as it is the closest port to Asia on
Latin America's west coast. The Manta deal could also help smooth out
a disagreement between Ecuador and China's major state energy players
over the October increase of Ecuador's windfall oil tax. The next
steps would involve HPH accepting the post-2009 concession for Manta's
air base (it already controls the sea port), and another Chinese
investment firm's participation in financing the road-rail network
between Manta and Manaus, Brazil.
According to STRATFOR, "While this is not the first time China has
been made such an offer by a Latin American nation, it is the first
time U.S. geopolitical interests in the region have been so closely
brushed up against." They forecast that "from a security perspective,
a Chinese military presence in the Western Hemisphere would be viewed
by the United States as a hostile move and would almost inevitably
invite the Pentagon's ire." However, they predict that Beijing, and
especially the People's Liberation Army, will try to maintain good
relations with the United States to prevent remunerative trade
policies such as tariffs.
There is a historical irony to this turn of events, though neither
governments nor corporations are likely to see it as such. Sanho Tree
of the Institute for Policy Studies notes, "It's ironic that it is
China, and not a European power, that would challenge the Monroe
Doctrine. The irony is doubled as China turns the original U.S. Open
Door Policy of 1900 (designed to allow U.S. access to Chinese markets)
back on the United States to get better access to Latin American
markets."
