The Americas <https://www.npr.org/sections/latin-america/> Ecuador rejects U.S. military bases in major defeat for President Noboa November 17, 202510:56 AM ET <https://www.npr.org/people/2100701/carrie-kahn>
Carrie Kahn <https://www.npr.org/people/2100701/carrie-kahn> [image: Demonstrators encourage passersby to vote against a referendum to decide, among other items, whether to allow foreign military bases in Ecuador, during a rally in Quito, Wed. Nov. 12, 2025. In the end, the no vote won.] Demonstrators encourage passersby to vote against a referendum to decide, among other items, whether to allow foreign military bases in Ecuador, during a rally in Quito, Wed. Nov. 12, 2025. In the end, the no vote won. Dolores Ochoa/AP GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador — Ecuadorians voted on Sunday to reject a package of referendum measures that would have allowed foreign military bases in the country. The result is seen as a sharp political setback for *President Daniel Noboa* <https://www.npr.org/2025/04/13/nx-s1-5363690/ecuadors-president-daniel-noboa-wins-re-election>, the 37-year-old conservative leader and close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump. The proposal was heavily backed by Noboa as a crucial step to confront drug traffickers and violent gangs. Homicide rates in some Ecuadorian cities are amongst the world's highest, as local gangs, backed by international trafficking cartels fight for territory. The president says roughly 70% of global cocaine flows through the country. Even so, voters decisively opposed the plan. Voters also rejected measures to cut public funding for political parties, create a constitutional assembly to rewrite the country's constitution and reduce the size of Congress. For many, the vote was a referendum on Noboa's leadership. Rosita Guichimillo, a 48-year-old Quito homemaker, said she feared the constitutional revisions would place too much power in the president's hands. "If he rewrites the constitution, he'll do it to serve himself … and ruin the country even more," Guichimillo said as she voted in the Ecuadorian capital under light showers. Ecuador has been battered by a surge in gang violence as criminal groups aligned with international cartels fight for control of trafficking routes. Coastal communities have been hit particularly hard, with *struggling fishermen often coerced or recruited* <https://www.npr.org/2025/11/16/nx-s1-5607291/ecuador-votes-on-whether-it-will-let-the-u-s-put-military-bases-in-the-country> with promises of quick cash. The country's position between Peru and Colombia — the world's top cocaine producers — has turned it into a major transit corridor for drugs heading to the United States and Europe. Cartels and their local partners now exert influence across key port cities and wide stretches of the Pacific coast. Noboa spent weeks pushing for the ballot measures, arguing that foreign military cooperation would bolster Ecuador's overstretched security forces. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has visited Ecuador twice this year, offering intelligence-sharing support. On her most recent trip, she toured a former U.S. military base on the Pacific coast and rode horseback alongside President Noboa. The president has declared an "internal armed conflict," imposed repeated states of emergency, and opened a maximum-security prison for gang leaders — moves that initially lowered violence but failed to sustain long-term improvements, with* homicides set to hit new records this year* <https://www.crisisgroup.org/latin-america-caribbean/ecuador/109-paradise-lost-ecuadors-battle-organised-crime> . Ecuadorian security analyst Michele Maffei said broader reforms are still needed. "Co-operation is just the cherry on top," she said. "Ecuador has to strengthen its judicial system and tackle corruption." Sunday's referendum result comes amid rising uncertainty in the region, as the largest U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean in decades continues to expand. Officially, Washington frames the buildup as an "anti-narco terrorism" effort, but President Trump has also been considering military options against Venezuela's authoritarian government, which he accuses of involvement in drug trafficking — a claim Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro denies. -- JAI -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39324): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39324 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116350120/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
