‘US will not have Manta-like airbase in Colombia’

Colombia will not have an U.S. military base like the north American country now has in Ecuador, Colombia’s commander in chief said Tuesday.

General Freddy Padilla de León, commander in chief of the Colombian armed forces said that while Colombia will continue to work with the U.S. in the fight against drug trafficking, a U.S. base within the country is not a possibility.

Padilla de León made the announcement in response to U.S Ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield’s comment that the U.S. was considering moving its military capacity to Colombia after the closing of the Manto airbase
off the coast of Ecuador.