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US Airplane P3 Orion will also fly over Galápagos exclusive commercial zone
Posted On 07 Sep 2018
Ecuadornews:
The American P3 Orion aircraft that arrived in the country last Wednesday afternoon as support for the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking will also be used to monitor the exclusive commercial zone of Galapagos to combat illegal fishing.
The announcement was made Thursday by Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrin, after inspecting the interior of the aircraft on the runway of Simón Bolívar air base in northern Guayaquil.
The Minister of the Interior, María Paula Romo, and the United States Ambassador to Ecuador, Todd Chapman, were also on the tour.
Jarrin said that because the aircraft has a large detection capacity it will be used to extend the Civil Aviation systems, and also the radars of the Armed Forces.
“The exclusive economic zone (…) is permanently threatened, as we have informed in previous meetings, by fishing vessels of different nationalities that are in the vicinity of Galapagos …”.
He added that the overflights and aeronautical exploration that the foreign plane will make will be in restricted airspace, so it must have the authorization of the Ecuadorian State, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
After ten years, US military aircraft will operate in Ecuador against drug trafficking
An agreement is analyzed
For this, according to the Minister, an agreement is being made where the regulations that the ship must strictly comply with will be established.
“That means sovereignty, giving air control specifications,” said Jarrin, who said that to establish these rules he already held meetings in the Southern Command of the United States, where he said that he has verified that the information that Ecuador will receive as part of this agreement It will not be just the plane, but a series of procedures that are composed in the Integral Intelligence Cooperation System of the Southern Command (SCII).
“It is also the way we integrate 20 countries that make up this system of cooperation, which have the same concern we have with transnational crimes, organized crime and illegal fishing,” said Minister Jarrin. (I)
