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U.S. base in Ecuador gets last CO before close

QUITO, Ecuador — An Air Force officer is assuming his post as the last chief of a drug-interdiction air base in Ecuador before its lease runs out next year.

Lt. Col. Jared Curtis took command Wednesday in a ceremony at the base in the Pacific port of Manta.

U.S. Consul Douglas Griffith says Curtis will oversee the withdrawal of some 300 U.S. troops from the coastal base, which will close by November 2009.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has refused to renew the U.S. lease, and he backs a proposed new constitution that would bar foreign military bases from Ecuadorean soil.

Flights from Manta have led to about 60 percent of U.S. drug interdiction in the eastern Pacific.

The U.S. Southern Command has said it has no plans to reopen the base elsewhere.