AP: Ecuador Candidate Defends Chavez Ties

Ecuador Candidate Defends Chavez Ties

By GONZALO SOLANO
The Associated Press
Monday, September 25, 2006; 9:00 PM

QUITO, Ecuador -- A tough-talking leftist economist and presidential front-runner
who rattles foreign investors said Monday he is proud to call Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez his friend.

Rafael Correa also said he would not extend the U.S. military's use of the Pacific
coast Manta air base as an operational site for drug surveillance flights when the
treaty runs out in 2009.

"A symbol of sovereignty is to not have foreign soldiers on national soil," he said.
The only way the U.S. military presence would continue in Ecuador was if Washington
allowed "an Ecuadorean military base in Miami," he said.

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On Monday, Correa said he would seek to renegotiate Ecuador's foreign debt service,
but would not rule out a moratorium on payments to international lenders "if there
isn't openness on the part of the markets, multinationals and governments."

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