WASHINGTON (AP)--Al-Qaida and Middle East terrorists are operating near Ecuador's borders with Peru and Colombia, and Ecuador needs U.S. help to combat them, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Thursday. "We have got in the tri-border area a bit of a problem with al-Qaida itself and some Hezbollah elements," he told the House Appropriations' foreign operations subcommittee. "We do need cooperation."
In addition, U.S. efforts to help Colombia combat drug traffickers - and perhaps insurgents - might hurt Ecuador if the traffickers and rebels seek to escape there, he said.
President Bush's request for $27 billion in emergency spending this year names Ecuador as one of 19 countries in urgent need of foreign military financing for the war on terrorism. The countries would share $372.5 million, which would be used "immediately to strengthen the forces of our friends and allies in the fight against terrorism, by providing vitally needed equipment and training," the request says.
Rep. Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., was concerned about Ecuador's decision to prohibit the U.S. from using the Manta air base to carry out the war on terrorism. The U.S. has used the base for two years to fight drug trafficking.
Ecuador's foreign relations minister, Heinz Moeller, said in February that the government wouldn't let the U.S. use the base for antiterror activities.
Callahan, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, suggested Ecuador should be required to reverse that position before it gets any aid.
The U.S. spent millions of dollars to repair the base in western Ecuador, " and yet they're telling us they're not going to allow us to use it for anything that has to do with Operation Enduring Freedom," Callahan said.
Armitage said he wasn't aware of the air base problem.
In October 1999, Ecuador signed an agreement letting the U.S. military use the Manta airfield to make surveillance flights over drug-producing regions in Central and South America.
That agreement and the $7.5 billion, six-year Plan Colombia anti-drug effort have raised fear among Ecuadoreans that their country will become a staging ground for U.S. military intervention in Colombia. That, they worry, could spark retaliation by guerrilla and paramilitary groups who take payments to protect the drug trade.
(This story was originally published by Dow Jones Newswires)
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