U.S. ROLE IN DRUG WAR CREATES CONCERNS IN ECUADOR

MANTA, Ecuador -- American airmen armed with M-16 assault rifles keep
a close watch on U.S. Navy spy planes parked on a runway at an
airfield on the outskirts of this Pacific port.

The Ecuadorean air base has become the new hub of U.S. surveillance
flights over the vast cocaine-producing areas of South America, and
the U.S. military guards have reason to be vigilant.

The drug-fueled violence that Ecuadoreans long feared would spill
over the Colombian border has arrived -- intensifying a debate over
the wisdom of giving the United States a foothold close to the
troubled frontier.

Many Ecuadoreans worry their country is being set up as a staging
ground for U.S. intervention in Colombia and could be sucked into a
regional conflict.

"We support the base being used to fight drug trafficking," Antonio
Posso, an influential congressman, said in an interview in Quito, the
capital. "But the base apparently is being used also to put together
an operation to fight Colombia's guerrillas, which involves us in a
conflict that is not Ecuador's."

The United States is spending $62 million to expand and improve the
Manta runway and build hangars, dormitories, and a dining hall. The
number of U.S. servicemen assigned to Manta has risen to 125 and that
figure will reach 400 after construction work is completed in October.

At that point, giant U.S. AWACS surveillance planes and tankers to
refuel them will replace the smaller Navy aircraft, allowing the
United States to monitor air and marine activity far into the
Caribbean. That will allow full resumption of U.S. anti-drug
surveillance flights, which were cut by two-thirds when U.S. forces
evacuated Howard Air Force Base in Panama in 1999.

The United States maintains the Manta base will remain under
Ecuadorean control and is being used only as an observation post to
track drug-smuggling aircraft and boats. U.S. officials insist it has
nothing to do with the $1.3 billion U.S. aid package for the
counternarcotics offensive in Colombia.

"The closing of Howard Air Force Base in Panama stopped the ability
of the government to easily look at the movement of drugs from Latin
America to the United States," U.S. Ambassador Gwen Clare said in an
interview in Quito. "Manta, which sits in the middle of the source
zone, has improved dramatically our ability to monitor movement of
drugs in the region.

"Why would we put at risk this pearl that we have? Why would we put
at risk this opportunity to see, as we have never seen before, what
is going on in the transit zone," Clare said.

But many Ecuadoreans remain suspicious and the anxiety level in the
country has risen as Colombia's violence has begun to directly impact
Ecuador.

A recent attack in a coastal village on the Colombian border, Palma
Real, stunned Ecuadoreans by its savagery.

Colombian drug traffickers abducted and killed a village official and
six of his relatives and friends, including his 14-year-old daughter.
They disfigured their victims' faces with acid and slit open their
abdomens, spilling out their intestines.

The motive? The official had dared to confiscate 200 kilos of cocaine
the Colombians had tried to smuggle through Ecuador.

The violence was a nightmare for many Ecuadoreans, who fear U.S. use
of the Manta base may provoke bloody reprisals from powerful
Colombian rebel groups who protect the narcotics trade.

Ecuadoreans' suspicions of U.S. plans for Manta may stem partly from
the secrecy surrounding the government's agreement to let the United
States use the air base for 10 years.

Jamil Mahuad, the president who approved the arrangement in November
1999, was overthrown two months later in a military-backed coup
provoked by widespread public discontent over his mismanagement of
the economy. He fled the country in disgrace.

Critics say Mahuad had hoped the Manta agreement would lead to U.S.
support for international loans to bail out the sinking economy.

"He never thought about what it meant for Ecuador's security," said
Andres Bonilla, a political scientist.

Former Foreign Minister Benjamin Ortiz said the Mahuad government
viewed cooperation with the United States as "a way of protecting the
country from the problem of drug trafficking" in Colombia.

"We should realize that we have the world's largest criminal
enterprise next door and that it can destroy us," he said.

The Manta base commander argues it is in his country's interest to
cooperate with the United States.

"I'm convinced the Colombian guerrillas are going to spread out
because of Plan Colombia and the north of Ecuador is going to be an
escape route for them," said Col. Jose Bohorquez. "It is something
that is coming whether the Ecuadorean base harbors the Americans or
not."

Despite the controversy, there is little opposition among the
residents of Manta, who have put out the welcome mat for American
servicemen. Townspeople are delighted with the prospect of millions
of dollars pouring in at a time when Ecuador is trying to dig its way
out of its deepest economic crisis in decades.

The airport expansion has produced hundreds of construction jobs, and
new restaurants and bars have popped up along the port's seaside
avenue aimed at pulling in the Yankee dollar.

"They've treated us very well," said Lt. Col. Richard Hair, chief of
the U.S. Air Force mission. "Obviously, they're interested in the
economic benefits, but they've been very, very friendly and we've
felt a great deal of support from everyone in town."