Ecuador is nestled between the world’s biggest cocaine producers, Colombia and Peru, and is home to several deep-water ports that have attracted cartels, mafias, and criminal gangs from around the world.
Ecuador is believed to be the departure point for 70 percent of the world’s supply of cocaine.
Most is destined for the United States, but important quantities also reach Europe, Australia, and Asia.
Noboa is also hoping to appoint a commission to make sweeping constitutional reforms.
But that plan, and the plan to host foreign bases, face legal hurdles.
The constitutional court must approve the plans, and has previously been hostile to Noboa’s reforms.
Rights groups say Noboa’s use of the military to tackle drug violence and use of rolling decrees to establish a state of emergency have corroded Ecuador’s democracy.
One group, Freedom House, earlier this year said Noboa’s policies had led to “arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances.”