Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Space Travel News .




SUPERPOWERS
Ecuador expels US officers, cancels military program
by Staff Writers
Quito (AFP) April 25, 2014


Ecuador's President Rafael Correa has ordered all US military officers to leave the country by the end of month and canceled a security cooperation program with the Pentagon, US officials said on Friday.

"At the request of the government of Ecuador, our bilateral security cooperation programs in Ecuador are currently coming to a close," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told AFP in an email.

The defense program had to be shut down by the end of April, he said.

An American embassy official in Quito had earlier said Quito had demanded 20 US Defense Department personnel leave the country, and Ecuadoran officials had said they had until the end of the month to depart.

The move is the latest setback for US-Ecuador relations, which have been strained since Correa entered office in 2007. His government has expelled American diplomats and rebuffed a trade deal with Washington, while accusing the United States of imperialist ambitions.

The United States respects Ecuador's right as a "sovereign" nation to expel the US military staff, but regrets that the move "will severely limit our bilateral cooperation on issues related to security," Jeffrey Weinshenker, a spokesman at the US embassy in Quito, said in a statement.

He added: "The Ecuadoran government has made clear that it no longer wants this security assistance.

"The US government is reducing our security cooperation programs and moving those assets to another location," the diplomat said.

US military assistance over four decades in Ecuador had included technical training and had helped counter drug-trafficking, human trafficking and transnational crime, according to US officials.

The expulsions make good on a months-old threat by Correa to drastically pare back the presence of US military officers and staff in Ecuador, citing concerns about US "espionage" and "American imperialism."

Quito in January said it wanted to reduce the number of US military staff on its territory, and also warned it would not allow American "espionage equipment" on its soil.

Prior to the expulsion orders, there were about 50 US military staff in Ecuador, according to officials in the Ecuador government.

Correa said he became aware of what he described as a bloated US military presence in his country after learning that four Pentagon personnel were aboard an Ecuadoran military helicopter that came under fire in October near the border with Colombia.

Bilateral relations also were damaged by the controversy over US electronic surveillance of foreign governments, which was brought to light by fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.

In 2009, Correa refused to renew a lease that had allowed US forces to operate out of Manta, an important base for its counter-narcotics efforts in South America.

In 2012, the Ecuadoran president angered Washington when his government granted asylum at its embassy in London to Julian Assange, the founder of the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, which published a trove of classified US documents.

.


Related Links
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle




Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News





SUPERPOWERS
France send jets to Baltics; Britain scrambles jets after Russian plane approaches airspace
Washington, United States (AFP) April 23, 2014
Four French fighter jets will join NATO air patrols over the Baltics starting on Sunday, France's chief of defense staff said Wednesday during a visit to Washington. General Pierre de Villiers said the four fighter aircraft, either Mirage 2000 or Rafale jets, would fly from a base in Poland, amid growing anxiety in Baltic countries over Russia's intervention in Ukraine. "They will partic ... read more


SUPERPOWERS
Russian Rockets used by the US

SpaceX Cargo Mission Launches to Space Station

SpaceX supply capsule berths at ISS

MEASAT-3b arrives in French Guiana; Ariane 5 delivered to Kourou

SUPERPOWERS
Opportunity Rover Driving Up To Crater Rim

NASA Rover Opportunity's Selfie Shows Clean Machine

NASA's Human Path to Mars

Meteorites Yield Clues to Red Planet's Early Atmosphere

SUPERPOWERS
John C. Houbolt, Unsung Hero of the Apollo Program, Dies at Age 95

NASA Completes LADEE Mission with Planned Impact on Moon's Surface

Russia plans to get a foothold in the Moon

Russian Federal Space Agency is elaborating Moon exploration program

SUPERPOWERS
Dwarf planet 'Biden' identified in an unlikely region of our solar system

Planet X myth debunked

WISE Finds Thousands Of New Stars But No Planet X

New Horizons Reaches the Final 4 AU

SUPERPOWERS
First Potentially Habitable Earth-Sized Planet Confirmed By Gemini And Keck Observatories

Odd Tilts Could Make More Worlds Habitable

Continents May Be A Key Feature of Super-Earths

First Earth-sized planet found in 'habitable zone': NASA

SUPERPOWERS
ATK supplying hardware, composites for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle

NASA Gears Up for Next Set of Engine Tests for Space Launch System

NASA Signs Deal With German, Canadian Partners To Test New Fuels

NASA Engineers Prepare Game Changing Cryotank for Testing

SUPERPOWERS
China launches experimental satellite

Tiangong's New Mission

"Space Odyssey": China's aspiration in future space exploration

China to launch first "space shuttle bus" this year

SUPERPOWERS
Construction to Begin on NASA Spacecraft Set to Visit Asteroid in 2018

Dawn draws ever closer to dwarf planet Ceres

Cosmic collision creates mini-planet with rings

Hubble Space Telescope Spots Mars-Bound Comet Sprout Multiple Jets




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.