| Summary/Abstract |
Peace activists from around the world gathered in Ecuador in 2007 for the International Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases and demanded the closure of existing foreign bases, a cleanup of environmental contamination, and an end to legal immunity for foreign military personnel. They called for support for and solidarity with “those who struggle for the abolition of all foreign military bases worldwide.”1 The conference came immediately after Rafael Correa, riding a rising tide of anti-imperialist sentiment, assumed office. The leftist president highlighted the United States’ hypocrisy when he famously quipped that he would allow the United States to maintain its military presence in Ecuador if in exchange the United States would permit his country to establish a base in Miami. Correa refused to renew a ten-year lease on the military base at Manta. When the U.S. lease expired two years later, U.S. troops peacefully departed.
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