Manta (Ecuador)
Manta on the map of Ecuador
Manta is a mid-sized port city on the Pacific coast of Ecuador.
It is located in the province of Manabí and has existed since before the Spanish conquest. The city has grown in the last 50 years 217 553 inhabitants. The main economic activity is tuna fishing. Other economic activities are tourism and the chemical industry.
The city has an international airport ( Eloy Alfaro International) and a relatively large seaport.
Ecuador joined the United States in 1999 from a ten-year valid contract that allowed the U.S. to use the military airfield of Manta to start from there aircraft to combat drugs. The base in Manta was one of the Forward Operating Locations ( advanced command post ) of the United States Southern Command and the main center of the Ministry of Defense of the United States of satellite electronic espionage in South America.
Among other things, the discontent in the Ecuadorian population on this treaty in 2005 resulted to the fact that Ecuadorian President Lucio Gutiérrez was deposed as a result of several days of demonstrations by the Parliament. In January 2007 came very close to this basis, the recently appointed Defense Minister Guadalupe Larriva in a helicopter collision killed.
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa did not renew the contract for the hitherto single airbase of the United States in South America; in September 2009 granted the U.S. military be thereat high-tech center for satellite-based electronic espionage.
Colombia or the right-wing President Álvaro Uribe left the United States as a substitute for Manta seven points ( main base Palenquero in the middle of Colombia); The Agreement was signed on 31 October 2009.