{"id":177769,"date":"2019-06-17T07:06:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T12:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/06\/17\/i-weep-for-the-tortoises\/"},"modified":"2019-06-17T07:06:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T12:06:00","slug":"i-weep-for-the-tortoises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/06\/17\/i-weep-for-the-tortoises\/","title":{"rendered":"I Weep for the Tortoises"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Notwithstanding a section of their constitution banning foreign military bases, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-latin-america-48663283\">Ecuador is allowing the US to set up a base in Galapagos<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">Ecuador has agreed to allow US military planes to operate from an airport on the Galapagos Islands, reports say.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">US aircraft will be able to use San Cristobal airport, Ecuador&#8217;s defence minister Oswaldo Jarrin has been quoted as saying.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">They will &#8220;fight drug trafficking&#8221; under a deal with Ecuador&#8217;s government, Mr Jarrin said.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">The reported deal has prompted concerns over the potential impact on the environment and Ecuador&#8217;s sovereignty.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Legislators in Ecuador&#8217;s parliament have called on Mr Jarrin and environment minister Marcelo Mata to explain the scope of co-operation with the US in the islands.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">They have asked them to elaborate on proposals to extend the runway at San Cristobal airport, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eluniverso.com\/noticias\/2019\/06\/13\/nota\/7375683\/asamblea-llama-dos-ministros-anuncio-convertir-galapagos-porta\">daily El Universo reports<\/a>.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Lawmaker Marcela Cevallos said the plan would be alarming for conservationists, it reported.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Opposition congressman Carlos Viteri said the agreement with the US was &#8220;unacceptable&#8221; and should be prohibited if &#8220;it intends to cede an inch of Ecuadorian territory&#8221;. <\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Under Article 5 of Ecuador&#8217;s constitution, the country is &#8220;a territory of peace&#8221; and the &#8220;establishment of foreign military bases or foreign facilities for military purposes shall not be allowed&#8221;.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Ecuador&#8217;s former president Rafael Correa also reacted angrily, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MashiRafael\/status\/1138809632770732033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1138809632770732033&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telesurenglish.net%2Fnews%2FGalapagos-Islands-Will-Now-Serve-the-US-Military-as-an-Airfield-20190612-0028.html\">tweeting (in Spanish) that the island was &#8220;not an aircraft carrier&#8221; for the Americans<\/a>.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Mr Jarrin assured critics that &#8220;there will be no permanence of anyone&#8221; on the island.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">He said any modifications to the airfield would be paid for by the US, Telesur reported.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So, the US will pay to modify airfield, potentially destroying hundreds of acres of habitat on San Cristobal, but it&#8217;s not a base.<\/p>\n<p>This is manifest destiny Monroe Doctrine bullsh%$.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Notwithstanding a section of their constitution banning foreign military bases, Ecuador is allowing the US to set up a base in Galapagos: Ecuador has agreed to allow US military planes to operate from an airport on the Galapagos Islands, reports say.US aircraft will be able to use San Cristobal airport, Ecuador&#8217;s defence minister Oswaldo Jarrin &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[384,484,364,387,485,379],"class_list":["post-177769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-aviation","tag-environment","tag-evil","tag-hypocrisy","tag-latin-america","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177769"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}