Ecuador's Noboa seeks constitutional change to allow foreign military bases in country

QUITO (Reuters) -Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa will seek changes to the constitution to allow foreign military bases to be established in the Andean country, he said on Monday via a post on X.

"Today we will present a partial constitutional reform to the national assembly which substantially modifies article 5 of the constitution that prohibits the establishment of foreign military bases ... for military purposes. In a transnational conflict we need a national and international response," Noboa said in the message.

Ecuador's constitution has prohibited the presence of foreign military bases or installations for military purposes on Ecuadorean territory since 2008.

In January, Noboa declared Ecuador was fighting an internal war to end violence between gangs linked to drug trafficking.

"We are rebuilding the country that they left on its knees, the country that they turned into a cradle for drug trafficking, that they distributed to the mafias with a false notion of sovereignty," Noboa said in a video recorded from the Manta military base.

The United States previously operated a military base in the coastal city of Manta to combat drug trafficking, but former President Rafael Correa ordered U.S. troops to leave in 2009.

(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Stephen Coates)