At its peak, the U.S. stationed up to {{blank}} military personnel at Ecuador's Manta base to operate surveillance aircraft for drug interdiction.

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The U.S. stationed up to 475 military personnel at Manta base under the 1999 agreement with Ecuador. These forces operated USAF AWACS E-3 and U.S. Navy P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft, supported by about 300 personnel who flew roughly 100 missions per month monitoring air traffic for drug-running boats leaving Colombia. In 2007 alone, these flights led to about 200 cocaine seizures totaling approximately 230 tons. Despite this operational scale, President Correa refused to renew the agreement, calling the base an affront to sovereignty.

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