Word: manta
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...aided Colombia in the March 1 attack and reiterated his suspicions that U.S. intelligence agencies had infiltrated Ecuador's armed forces and police - remarks that seem to all but assure that the small South American nation will not renew the lease for the U.S. antinarcotics surveillance base at Manta on Ecuador's Pacific coast. For Correa, "the political costs" of letting the base stay "outweigh the benefits," says Freddy Rivera, a security expert at the Latin American Social Sciences Faculty University in Quito...
Correa, an ally of Venezuela's left-wing, anti-U.S. President Hugo Chavez, has made no secret of wanting to give the Manta base the boot since he became President last year. He views the facility - which the U.S. Air Force calls a Forward Operating Location (FOL) and not a full-fledged military base - as an affront to Ecuadorian sovereignty. Many if not most Ecuadorians agree, if only because of what they consider the questionable circumstances under which it was established in 1999. That year the U.S. failed to reach a deal with Panama on continued...
...joyous shoot. The fun part was getting a weekend off and going on safari. I saw a pack of 35 lions eat a wildebeest carcass and swam with giant manta rays. That was unbelievable. Africa's natural beauty is unmatched...
...Zedelmayer, the dive-school owner and a 26-year Baros veteran, says his favorite dive site is like "fish soup." He's not exaggerating. During one dive, I found myself pleasantly disoriented by seemingly thousands of shimmering yellowfin fusiliers swishing past me. The marine life is abundant, from spaceshiplike manta rays to the venomous yet showy lionfish. And some of what swims underwater also pleases when it lands on your plate. Aussie chef Damian Barrett's menu features such treats as grilled Maldivian lobster, spicy mud crab and straight-out-of-the-water yellowfin tuna sashimi...
...Bush-bashing is just one part of an election very much defined by U.S.-related issues. One is whether Ecuador will keep letting the U.S. use the Manta air base on the Pacific coast for drug surveillance flights - or if Ecuador will even continue to assist Washington's drug war, particularly the multibillion-dollar Plan Colombia. (Correa says he would not renew the Manta treaty when it expires...