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Trump met with Ecuadorean president Noboa on Saturday in Florida

On Saturday, U.S. president Donald Trump met with Ecuadorean president Daniel Noboa at a hotel in Florida. The meeting came ahead of the tight run-off vote on April 13, which will pit Noboa and leftist Luisa Gonzales against each other.

Noboa was elected to finish the remaining term of his predecessor in 2023 on the promise to fight drug gangs which have caused turmoil to the once tranquil South American nation.

Trump made combating the fentanyl that is responsible for 70,000 deaths per year in the United States a major pillar of his second tenure in office, by imposing tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China.

Noboa shared a photo of him and his wife with Trump on X late Saturday night, but did not add any commentary. White House officials confirmed that the meeting would be held on Friday but did not provide any details.

Trump met with the Finnish President Alexander Stubb earlier that day at Trump's golf club in West Palm Beach in Florida. The two discussed their bilateral relationship and played a round golf.

Noboa, along with his wife, attended Trump's inaugural in Washington D.C. in January.

This month, it was reported that Ecuadorean officials told Trump's allies they were interested in hosting an American military base. They also expressed interest in a free-trade agreement with the United States similar to those in place in Colombia and Peru.

Noboa, the son of one Ecuador's wealthiest businessmen, has deployed the military in the streets and prisons using state-of-emergency declarations. He also implemented harsher sentences and cheered on the arrest of major gang leader.

Noboa said that Ecuador would not accept deported migrants from other countries, but it will always welcome its citizens. He also criticized Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for rejecting briefly flights of Venezuelan migrants who were deported by the United States.

Noboa announced an "alliance" with Erik Prince, a prominent Trump backer and founder and CEO of the private military company Blackwater. The alliance will be used to combat crime and narcoterrorism within this 17-million-strong country.

Mark Feierstein is a former senior official of the Biden and Obama Administrations. He said that the timing of Noboa's meeting with Trump, just before the elections, suggested both sides thought it would help Noboa.

"Trump's reputation is crashing in the U.S., and all over the globe." "Ecuador is a pro U.S. nation, but this type of intervention could give Gonzalez an extra boost," said he.

Noboa has made a public argument for the bringing of foreign military bases into Ecuador. The Ecuadorean parliament is at the beginning stages of a process that could remove a constitutional prohibition on such facilities, instituted in 2008 under the support of the former leftist president Rafael Correa.

After Noboa's election, the Biden administration expanded U.S.-Ecuador security cooperation. This included launching a bilateral defense group in 2023.

Noboa has ratified two agreements of military cooperation with the United States. These agreements establish a framework that allows U.S. personnel to operate in Ecuador, and allow for joint naval activities to combat illicit activities and drug trafficking.

The U.S. had a base in the Galapagos Islands, an environmentally sensitive area during World War Two. A separate base was used to fight narcotics on the mainland up until 2009. (Reporting from Andrea Shalal in Quito and Alexandra Valencia, Washington; additional reporting from Gram Slattery; editing by Diane Craft and Rod Nickel)

(source: Reuters)