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Ecuador event to slam foreign bases Editor's note: One of the venues for the World Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Bases, Manta is the US base from which the US Drug Enforcement agency runs its program of spraying Bolivia's coca growers. It was also where the late Ecuadorian Defence minister, Larriva, died in a suspicious helicopter accident during Ecuadorian defence exercises a few weeks ago. US forces from the Manta were first on the scene. From the pictures that Ecuadorian media put on the Internet and from the tone of the remarks of the US ambassador in Quito hours after the crash, in which he talked about how "we will be working with our friends in the Ecuadorian armed forces" (not co-operating with the Ecuadorian government), a US Marines fire brigade that reached the crash site do not seem to have been able to make away with any of the wreckage or bodies there. The defence minister had enemies in the senior ranks of the Ecuadorian forces, who were not consulted about the ministerial appointment. QUIOTO (19 February 2007) Prensa Latina - WORLD-RENOWNED personalities have confirmed participation in the "World Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Bases," scheduled for March 5-9 in Ecuador, spokespersons for the forum announced on Sunday. Participants include 1980 Peace Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina), US peace activist Cindy Sheehan and Global Exchange Director Medea Benjamin. "It will be a world protest by some 2,000 representatives from Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas," said Miguel Moran, leader of the Anti-imperialist Movement in Manta, in the Ecuadorian province of Manabi, where there is a US military base. According to Moran, the conference will be held in Quito and Manta, and be attended by Natsume Taira, of the Citizens Network for Peace, from Japan, Ecuadorian indigenous leader Blanca Chancoso, and Denis Doherty, coordinator of the Anti-Base Coalition, from Australia. Another prominent participant will be Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who has repeated that he will not renew the agreement on the Manta base with the United States in 2009. The World Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Bases will be held after US pacifists demanded early this year the closing of the Guantanamo naval base, which Washington has maintained against the Cuban people's will in eastern Cuba since 1903. According to several NGOs, there are 1,700 foreign military bases in the world, 700 of which are from the US. Source: http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={04950D53-5E21-47A1-A95D-B65E71816931})&language=EN -- |
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