International
Noboa sends to Parliament reform to re-establish foreign military bases in Ecuador
The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, sent this Thursday to the National Assembly (Parliament) the constitutional reform project to open the door to the re-establishment of foreign military bases in Ecuador, prohibited by the Constitution promulgated during the term of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), which forced the United States to leave the Manta base in 2009.
Noboa had already announced last September its intention to promote this constitutional reform to allow the installation of foreign permanent military bases in the country again, as part of its actions in the “internal armed conflict” that it declared at the beginning of the year against organized crime.
The National Assembly must process the constitutional reform project, which if approved must be endorsed in a referendum whose celebration could coincide with one of the voting dates of the general elections scheduled for early 2025.
The reason for the re-establishment of foreign bases in Ecuador
The Presidency of Ecuador assured in a statement that it has the favorable resolution of the Constitutional Court so that this change in the magna carta is processed as a partial reform, considering the court that it does not restrict constitutional rights and guarantees, but refers only to security in Ecuador.”
“Now the process will pass into the hands of the Legislature, who must decide which side of history it will be on regarding the proposal that will strengthen international cooperation in the fight against terrorism and crime,” said the Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency.
Following the announcement of this approach made by Noboa, the United States Embassy in Ecuador clarified in September that its Government does not plan to request authorization to establish a permanent military base in the Andean country.
Agreements between Ecuador and the United States
Ecuador and the United States currently maintain maritime cooperation agreements for the capture of vessels that transport large amounts of cocaine from the Ecuadorian coast to North America.
Some of these prohibitions have been made in recent days by the United States Coast Guard in international waters, to later hand over the detainees and narcotics to the Ecuadorian authorities within their jurisdictional waters, as the Ecuadorian Navy pointed out in a recent statement.
Likewise, both countries also recently signed a commitment act for the delivery to Ecuador of two 33.5-meter-long patrol boats of the United States Coast Guard, on the condition that Ecuador takes charge of their reconditioning and transport.
Noboa’s strategy
Since the beginning of the year, Noboa raised the fight against organized crime to the category of “internal armed conflict”, with which he went on to catalog these gangs as terrorist groups and non-state belligerent actors, while decreeing a state of emergency with which, among other actions, he militarized the prisons controlled by these organizations, which he also points out for being related to drug trafficking.
Surrounded by Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest producers of cocaine, with several ports on its coasts, such as Guayaquil, and a dollarized economy, Ecuador has become in recent years an important step for the trafficking of that drug that is mainly directed to Europe and North America.
Ecuador is listed as the third country in the world that confiscates the most drugs – only behind Colombia and the United States – with about 200 tons of narcotics per year that have been seized in each of the last three years, while in 2024 it has already exceeded that figure.
At the same time, Ecuador was positioned in 2023 as the country with the most homicides per capita in Latin America, with a rate of 47.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, while in 2024 the authorities claim to have reduced homicides by 18%.
International
Judge to rule next week on injunction against Trump’s student visa restrictions
A Boston (Massachusetts) federal judge postponed on Monday her decision on whether to maintain the injunction blocking President Donald Trump’s ban on foreign students at Harvard University.
District Judge Allison D. Burroughs announced after a hearing that she would decide next week whether to uphold or lift the temporary restraining order she issued in May against the policy.
The order will remain in effect until her ruling next week, according to local media reports.
Last month, the Trump administration barred Harvard from enrolling new foreign students and warned current international students that they must transfer to other universities or risk losing their immigration status.
Harvard, one of the most prestigious U.S. universities, filed a lawsuit arguing that its authorization to accept foreign students is “essential” for them to remain legally in the country.
In its legal challenge, the university stated that revoking this authorization has already “disrupted countless academic programs, research labs, and courses.”
Following Harvard’s lawsuit, Judge Burroughs issued a temporary restraining order against the government’s ban, which affects about a quarter of the university’s student body.
Despite the judge’s order, Harvard reported in court documents that several students who arrived in Boston on June 5 were sent to “secondary inspection” and “were detained for many hours without being able to contact anyone.”
International
Netanyahu: Israel is ‘changing the face of the Middle East’ amid Iran strikes
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Monday that Israel is “changing the face of the Middle East” with its unprecedented attack on Iran, now in the fourth day of escalating military tensions between the two countries.
Netanyahu made these remarks during a televised press conference, just hours after an airstrike targeted the Iranian state television building in Tehran, forcing a brief interruption of its broadcast.
At the time of the attack, cameras captured a state TV presenter, who had been criticizing Israel’s offensive, hastily leaving the studio amid thick dust and falling debris from the ceiling, according to videos circulated by Iranian media.
The channel resumed live programming minutes later, while Tehran condemned the strike as a “war crime.” Netanyahu stated that Iranians are now seeing that “the regime is much weaker” than previously thought, highlighting that since Friday, Israel has systematically eliminated Iran’s military leadership. “We take them out one by one,” he said.
Killing the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “would end the conflict” between Israel and Iran, Netanyahu told ABC News.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly opposed an Israeli plan to assassinate Khamenei, a senior U.S. official revealed on Sunday.
International
Israeli strike targets Iran’s state news agency amid escalating conflict
The fourth day of armed conflict between Israel and Iran has been marked by an Israeli attack on Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, which oversees a pair of television channels controlled by the Shiite theocracy and forms part of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) media apparatus.
The bombing occurred during a live broadcast of the channels. Iranian local media report that several employees present at the complex have died. In a video released by IRNA itself, presenter Sahar Emami is seen having to leave the studio as the bombing takes place.
Both Iran and Israel have issued warnings for their citizens in Tehran and Tel Aviv to evacuate certain areas. Israel ordered an immediate evacuation of Tehran’s District 3, where most foreign diplomats reside. The National Library of Iran is also located in this neighborhood. Meanwhile, Iran mirrored its systemic rival by advising residents of the ultra-Orthodox Bnei Brak district in Tel Aviv to prepare for further attacks.
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