A referendum in Ecuador on the return of foreign military bases appears to be failing, with a partial count of more than a third of ballots showing 60 percent rejection of the proposal.

A separate measure to convene an assembly to rewrite the constitution also has 61 percent rejection, according to the partial count on Sunday, with 36 percent of votes counted.

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Losses would be a blow to President Daniel Noboa, who had backed both measures, saying foreign cooperation, including shared or foreign bases within the country, is central to fighting organised crime in the country.

He has also said that the current constitution, drafted under former leftist President Rafael Correa, must be revised to reflect the country’s new reality.

Ecuador banned foreign military bases on its soil in 2008.

A “No” vote would likely block the United States military returning to the Manta airbase on the Pacific coast – once a hub for Washington’s anti-drug operations.

In Sunday’s referendum, voters were also asked if Ecuador should cut public funding for political parties, and if the number of legislators in the nation’s congress – the National Assembly – should be reduced from 151 representatives to 73.

The early count showed those proposals failing, too.

The referendum is taking place amid unprecedented violence in Ecuador, which has become a key transit point for cocaine produced in neighbouring Colombia and Peru. Drug trafficking gangs have attacked presidential candidates, mayors and journalists, as they fight for control over ports and coastal cities.

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The vote also comes as the US military conducts a series of airstrikes against alleged drug smuggling boats, a divisive policy from President Donald Trump that Noboa has backed.

In office since November 2023, Noboa has deployed soldiers on the streets and in prisons, launched dramatic raids on drug strongholds, and declared frequent states of emergency.

The 37-year-old millionaire has also posted images of hundreds of inmates, their heads shaved, in orange uniforms being moved to a new mega-prison, echoing moves by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele.

Still, in the first half of this year, there were 4,619 murders – the “highest in recent history,” according to Ecuador’s Organized Crime Observatory.

Just as voting began, Noboa announced that the leader of the country’s most notorious gang, Los Lobos, had been captured.

The most-wanted drug kingpin known as “Pipo” had “faked his death, changed his identity and hid in Europe,” Noboa said on X.

Interior Minister John Reimberg later said “Pipo” had been detained in Spain in a joint operation between Ecuadoran and Spanish police.