Global & US Headlines
Ecuador’s Nov 16 Referendum Blocks Return of U.S. Bases and Noboa’s Constitutional Overhaul
On 16 Nov 2025, voters rejected President Daniel Noboa’s four-question referendum, preserving the 2008 constitutional ban on foreign military bases and sinking his broader institutional reforms.
Focusing Facts
- Foreign-base amendment defeated 60.5 %–39.5 % with 90 % of ballots counted.
- Proposal for a constituent assembly lost 61.6 %–38.4 %; cuts to party funding and halving Congress were also voted down.
- Turn-out exceeded 80 %, with roughly 11.2 million of 14 million registered voters participating.
Context
Sunday’s vote echoes Ecuador’s 2008 constitutional rewrite that expelled U.S. forces from Manta in 2009, much as the Philippines Senate ejected U.S. troops from Subic Bay in 1991 despite crime-control and aid arguments. It fits a longer regional pattern—at least since Washington’s 1942 Galápagos outpost—of public nationalism swinging against foreign garrisons whenever security promises collide with sovereignty fears. The articles, from Anadolu to RT to TASS, each amplify their usual angles (anti-Western skepticism, anti-U.S. polemics, tabloid dramatics), but the numbers themselves are hard to dispute: six of ten Ecuadorians said “no.” On a century timeline the result matters because it freezes a constitutional clause that is notoriously hard to repeal, complicating the U.S. pivot to Latin America just as Washington eyes new footholds against drug routes and Chinese influence. It also reminds future Ecuadorian presidents that popular referenda can curb executive power grabs cloaked in “law-and-order”—a dynamic likely to recur as crime, debt, and great-power rivalry keep pressure on the Andes.
Perspectives
Western mainstream media
Associated Press–syndicated outlets such as Daily Mail Online and The Daily Press — Frame the referendum chiefly as an unexpected political defeat for President Daniel Noboa’s crime-fighting agenda while noting that international – particularly U.S. – security cooperation remains central to tackling Ecuador’s cartel violence. By stressing Noboa’s ‘iron-fisted’ anti-crime stance and treating U.S. basing as a practical security tool, these reports tend to underplay Ecuadorian sovereignty concerns and gloss over regional unease about a larger American footprint.
Russian state media
TASS, RT — Portray the vote as a popular slap-down of Washington’s plan to expand military influence in Latin America, stressing that Ecuadorians rebuffed U.S. bases despite heavy pressure from Noboa and the Pentagon. Coverage highlights alleged U.S. aggressions and dramatic casualty figures while ignoring Ecuador’s crime crisis or potential benefits of cooperation, reinforcing Moscow’s narrative of resisting American ‘imperialism’.
Global South outlets critical of U.S. influence
WION, Latest Asian–EurAsian news sites — Emphasise that Ecuadorians chose national sovereignty over foreign troops, casting the results as a ‘painful rebuke’ to a Trump-aligned president and a major setback to U.S. regional ambitions. Their vivid, at times celebratory language (‘massive NO’, ‘painful rebuke’) may exaggerate the geopolitical stakes and personalise the issue around Donald Trump, giving limited airtime to arguments that foreign help could curb drug-fuelled violence.