QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuadorians voted Sunday on a referendum that asks if they want to amend the country’s constitution to allow the South American nation to host military bases run by foreign countries. The four-part referendum also asked Ecuadorians if they want to launch a process that could lead to a new constitution for the nation of 18 million people.

Ecuador has struggled to control violent crime as it becomes a key transit point for cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru, with drug trafficking gangs attacking presidential candidates, mayors and journalists, as they fight for control over ports and coastal cities.

President Daniel Noboa, a conservative who has promised an iron fisted approach to crime, is one of the main supporters of Sunday’s referendum. In recent we

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