An international network for the abolition of foreign military bases has been created at a conference attended by over 1,000 activists and experts from 30 countries in Ecuador’s capital city of Quito on March 5. The No Bases Network will coordinate action strategies against the more than 1,000 military bases worldwide.

Lina Cahuasquí, an activist with the Ecuador No Bases Coalition, said that the No Bases Network will be “a plural, democratic space, linked to the permanent struggles of social organisations for a military-free system that is based on respect, equity, justice and a culture of peace.” The first international conference of its kind analysed the impact of foreign military bases and local people’s struggles against their existence.

Cahuasquí said that most of the 1,000 foreign military bases on the planet belong to the US, which has 737 in different countries. Others belong to Russia, China, the UK and Italy. “And these do not include secret military bases, like the four operated by the US in Iraq,” she said.

“But the US doesn’t only have bases in developing countries. It has 81 bases in Germany and 37 in Japan,” she added. In Latin America and the Caribbean there are 17 US military bases, located in Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, Aruba, Curaçao, Honduras, Ecuador, and Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, she noted. “The Philippines had US military bases for over 100 years, which were used against Vietnam and other nations. Some of the worst effects were violations of rights and democracy,” said Corazón Fabros Valdez, from the Philippines.

Ecuador’s new president, Rafael Correa, has already announced that he will not renew the lease of the Manta base. Spokespersons for the Bush administration had intimated that the US would like to continue using the facilities until 2012. Manta is Ecuador’s main port, located on the Pacific Ocean 260 km from Quito.

Herbert Docena, a researcher from the Philippines, said, “Besides the political declaration, we want to establish the No Bases Network all over the world and increase its dynamism, so that it embarks on medium and long term projects.”

Cahuasquí spoke of the US base at Vieques, Puerto Rico, as an example of the negative consequences of military bases. “The area was contaminated with heavy metals, chemicals, and even nuclear waste like depleted uranium, with harmful effects on the water, human beings, and the environment in general,” she said.

Many bases are touted as centres for cooperation and exchange, but are equipped with hi-tech communications gear and used for espionage, as in New Zealand.

The activists discussed the achievements of their struggle so far, including the case of Italy, where more than 100,000 people took to the streets to demonstrate that they would not accept violations of their national sovereignty.

Ecuador has refused a US proposal to set up another military base on the island of Baltra, in the Galápagos. Panama ousted the US Navy, and Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil have in recent years ceased to participate in joint naval manoeuvres with the United States.

Lawmakers from Brazil, Venezuela and European countries participated at the conference alongside activists, like the secretary general of the World Peace Council, member of the

European Parliament Tobias Pflueger, and Mexican researcher Ana Esther Ceceña. — IPS