Albright lauds new Ecuadorean leader

Moeller and Albright sign an agreement on $20 million in U.S. aid to Ecuador on Friday

QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) -- The United States gave the reformist Ecuadorean government a ringing endorsement on Friday and said it might add to the money it is giving to help insulate the country from Colombia's drug problems.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, on the last stop of a five-nation South American tour, said Washington strongly supported President Gustavo Noboa's economic programme and saw the country as a test for democracy in the Americas.

Noboa, formerly vice president, took office in January after an Indian uprising aided by rebel military leaders overthrew President Jamil Mahuad for his inability to lead the country out of recession and financial crisis.

The arrangement preserved a semblance of democracy and averted the stigma of a military government installed by coup.

The new president's economic plan, which started in May, includes measures such as cuts to fuel and energy subsidies and the elimination of trade tariffs. The country has adopted the U.S. dollar as its main currency to stabilise the economy.

Albright, speaking after talks with Noboa and Foreign Minister Heinz Moeller, said: "I know that Ecuador has gone through a crisis. Everyone watched it with great care and now we believe that it is on the right track.

"The government is working across the board to try to deal with the difficult problems. Nobody says the job is done and that is why I wanted to come here ... to lend U.S. support for President Noboa's very complicated work," she added.

The United States also wants to reassure Ecuador that a massive injection of U.S. money into the Colombian government's war on the cocaine business and rebels will not have side-effects in parts of Ecuador which border on Colombia.

The U.S. package of $1.3 billion for President Andres Pastrana's Plan Colombia includes $20 million for alternative development in northern Ecuador. The United States is also offering $15 million in case refugees cross the border.

Noboa and Albright shake hands before a meeting at the presidential palace in Quito on Friday

Albright said the United States was also looking for extra money to back an Ecuadorean project to strengthen the government's presence in the border areas.

"We understand the problem of being a neighbouring country to Colombia... I feel that we had a very good discussion about how we can provide more financial assistance," she added.

Moeller said the idea was to create a "buffer zone," along with ecological sanctuaries for jungle wildlife plus more police and soldiers to prevent "infection" by Colombian drug producers and traffickers.

"We are expecting to present to the American administration and to the European Union a programme that should be financed in line with the shared responsibility in fighting this universal disease," the minister added.

Ecuador is also involved in Washington's anti-cocaine efforts through its agreement last year to let the United States use the air base at Manta for reconnaissance flights to monitor the cocaine and opium trade from the air.

The base is one of four "forward operating locations" negotiated by the United States after it lost its base in the Panama Canal Zone at the end of 1999. The others are in Curacao and Aruba in the Caribbean, and in El Salvador.

Albright said Manta was an advantage to Ecuador because of the millions of dollars the United States will spend on improving the runway and on U.S. staff there.

"This is creating a world-class runway and that should bring economic benefits to the area. Tourism is growing there and the money spent there by U.S. personnel, about $25 million a year, should also result in more local jobs," she said.

Ecuador has not traditionally been a coca growing country and Moeller said his government saw it is as a moral duty to oppose the drugs business.

On Colombia, he said: "We believe that Colombia has the right to fight narcoproduction and of course we endorse the valiant efforts of President Pastrana in trying to achieve peace with the guerrillas through dialogue."

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U.S. State Department
Library of Congress Country Study: Ecuador
Embassy of Ecuador, Washington D.C.

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