QUITO, Nov 6, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived in Ecuador on Wednesday to tour its military facilities, days before the country votes in a referendum on allowing foreign bases on its territory.

The key vote takes place against the backdrop of a US military operation in the region, which has seen deadly strikes on alleged drug-ferrying boats killing at least 67 and the deployment of naval vessels.

The strategy enjoys the support of President Daniel Noboa, as a growing drug gang presence has turned once-peaceful Ecuador into the country with South America's highest homicide rate.

Noem arrived Wednesday afternoon at the Eloy Alfaro Air Base, located in the city of Manta, as part of her tour of "strategic facilities" that could serve as "potential bases" for the US Department of Homeland Security, Noboa's spokeswoman Carolina Jaramillo said at a conference in capital Quito earlier in the day.

If voters approve the measure, Jaramillo said US security and defense agencies, together with Ecuadorian police and military forces in charge of fighting organized crime, will jointly operate at those bases.

She did not provide further details. Noem's agency is responsible for anti-terrorism work, border and immigration control.

"When crime knows no borders, strategies against it must also know no borders," Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo said in a video statement, referring to Ecuador's joint work with the United States. "The specific focus of this cooperation is...on technological resources and equipment, which Ecuador still lacks."

On Thursday, Noem is scheduled to visit a military base in the coastal town of Salinas, in the southwest of the country.

For a decade, Manta hosted US aircraft for anti-drug flights until the country adopted a new constitution in 2008 banning foreign bases on its territory. Meanwhile, Salinas hosted a US military base during World War II. Both bases now host Ecuadoran military facilities.

Noboa, an ally of US President Donald Trump in the region, announced last week that both countries had ruled out the idea of opening as US military base in the Galapagos as part of the Washington anti-drug offensive.

Noboa also said that he was in talks with Brazil to create an Amazonian police force to combat organized crime in that region.