'Colombia offers Pentagon air base access'

By Staff
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Washington, July 12: Colombia has offered the Pentagon the use of its air fields for counternarcotics operations in Latin America after Ecuador refused to renew Washington's lease on a base there, a US official said.

But Ecuador might still be on the table too, according to the official, who said Ecuador's Defense Ministry had indicated room for negotiation on the lease despite publicly stated opposition by the country's president.

''There have been offers to look at different sites,'' the senior defense official said, naming Colombia as one of the countries that offered to discuss alternate sites.

The official spoke last week on condition of anonymity ahead of a planned trip to the region by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

That trip was later canceled.

Counternarcotics operations have become one of the US military's primary missions in Latin America. Colombia and Peru, the world's top cocaine producers, receive the largest amount of US military aid in the region.

Ecuador, which sits between them, has become a key transit point for illegal drugs bound for the United States.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who has called President George W. Bush a ''dimwit,'' has refused to extend the Pentagon's lease on the Manta air base used by US aircraft to help catch South American drug runners.

The US official said the lease on the base in Ecuador might be still be negotiated.

''There are some things that Ecuador is, at least from the Defense Ministry, that they have said that they want to revisit in terms of what our particular agreement is with them,'' the official said, noting a deal might allow the US military to land, but not operate fixed facilities, at Manta.

Reuters>

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