Ecuador's president proposes constitutional change to remove ban on foreign military bases

Ecuador's president, Daniel Noboa, has said he wants to change his country's constitution to allow the presence of foreign military bases. He made the proposal 15 years after the last US soldiers left the base of Manta, on Ecuador's Pacific coast, and returned it to the Ecuadorean military. President Noboa argues that Ecuador needs foreign military help to fight transnational crime gangs which are using the country as a major transit route for drugs smuggled from South American to Europe and the US. He said he would send the partial constitutional reform to Ecuador's National Assembly, which will have to vote on it for it to pass. But before it can be voted on by lawmakers, the change to the constitution will have to be approved by the constitutional court. Any change to the constitution also has to be put to the Ecuadorean people in a referendum in order to come into force.
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