Tag: ecuador

US Military Conducts Strike on Narco-Terrorist Cell in Ecuador (UNCLASSIFED VIDEO)

US Southern Command on Friday announced the US conducted a military strike on a narco-terrorist network in Ecuador.

“At the order of Secretary of War Hegseth, SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan directed the joint force to support Ecuadorian forces conducing lethal kinetic operations against Designated Terrorist Organizations within Ecuador March 6,” US Southern Command said.

“We are advancing alongside our partners in the fight against narcoterrorism,” General Donovan said.

“I congratulate our joint forces and the Ecuadorian armed forces for the successful operation against narcoterrorists in Ecuador. This collaborative and decisive action is a strategic success for all nations in the Western Hemisphere committed to disrupting and defeating narcoterrorism.” General Donovan said.

The Pentagon released a statement on the joint strike:

Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, the Department is uniting partners across the Western Hemisphere to detect, disrupt, and destroy designated terrorist organizations that fuel violence and corruption.

We commend President Noboa, the Government of Ecuador, and the brave troops of Ecuador’s defense and security forces for their partnership in the successful operation against a narco-terrorist supply complex today, disrupting their operations and logistics.

At the request of Ecuador, the Department of War executed targeted action to advance our shared objective of dismantling narco-terrorist networks.

This operation demonstrates the power of coordinated action and sends a clear message: narco-terrorist networks will not find refuge in our hemisphere.

The United States remains steadfast in supporting nations that stand against narcoterrorism. Together, we will dismantle trafficking and corruption networks, hold these organizations accountable, and restore peace through strength.

US Southern Command released unclassified video of the strike.

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US Southern Command Says US and Ecuadorian Forces Have Launched Operations Against Narco-Terrorist Organization in Ecuador, Releases Footage

As war rages on in the Middle East, Trump’s war on the designated terrorist drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere continues, with the US Southern Command announcing a joint operation with Ecuadorian military forces in Ecuador. 

The operations began on Tuesday against narco-terrorists “who have long inflicted terror, violence, and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere,” SOUTHCOM said in a statement.

US SOUTHCOM also released footage that appeared to tease the operation.

SOUTHCOM said in a statement:

On March 3, Ecuadorian and U.S. military forces launched operations against Designated Terrorist Organizations in Ecuador. The operations are a powerful example of the commitment of partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the scourge of narco-terrorism.

Together, we are taking decisive action to confront narco-terrorists who have long inflicted terror, violence, and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere.

“We commend the men and women of the Ecuadorian armed forces for their unwavering commitment to this fight, demonstrating courage and resolve through continued actions against narco-terrorists in their country.” – #SOUTHCOM Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan.

This comes as US forces continue drug boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific.

US forces conducted several strikes last month on vessels “operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations,” Southern Command said.

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Five Severed Human Heads Discovered Hanging on Beach in Apparent Drug Cartel Warning

Five severed human heads were discovered hanging from ropes on a beach in Ecuador, according to police.

According to multiple reports, local authorities said the gruesome scene appeared to be linked to ongoing drug-related violence gripping the country.

Ecuadorian media outlets showed the heads suspended from wooden poles placed directly on the beach, CBS News reported.

A wooden sign that was positioned next to the remains contained a written message.

According to The Associated Press, the message was directed at individuals accused of extorting local fishermen.

Officers attributed the incident to a conflict between rival criminal groups operating in the region.

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Ecuadorians reject return of US bases

Voters in Ecuador have rejected a proposal to bring US military bases back to the country, in a national referendum held on Sunday.

With around 95% of ballots counted, the official tally shows that 60.58% voted against President Daniel Noboa’s initiative to allow foreign troops to operate in Ecuador as part of efforts to fight organized crime and drug trafficking.

Noboa said he accepts the results. “We consulted with the Ecuadorians, and they have spoken. We fulfilled our promise to ask them directly. We respect the will of the Ecuadorian people,” he wrote on X.

US troops were stationed at an airbase in the port city of Manta until 2009, when then-President Rafael Correa refused to renew the lease and banned foreign bases in Ecuador.

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Daniel Noboa’s electoral theft will cement cartel and corporate control over Ecuador

President Daniel Noboa appears to have stolen Ecuador’s election. He’s now poised to consolidate control of a system that has benefitted cartels and multinational corporations – including his family business – at the expense of average Ecuadorians. And Washington likes what it sees.

Watch The Grayzone’s special video report on Noboa’s well-documented ties to transnational drug cartels here.

On April 13, 2025, Ecuador’s National Electoral Council proclaimed incumbent President Daniel Noboa the winner of the presidential runoff—a result that his challenger, the left-wing Luisa González, denounced as “massive fraud.”

If Noboa secures what appears to be an ill-gotten victory, he will be able to consolidate complete control over a state weakened by austerity and corrupted by deep infiltration by transnational drug cartels – a criminal network that is deeply enmeshed with his family’s business.

González, who led several polls by up to 6 points as of Friday, has demanded a vote-by-vote recount.

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Secret chats expose decade of US meddling in Ecuador

Exclusive interviews and leaked messages reveal how a key ally of the US weaponized the fight against corruption and criminal organizations to selectively prosecute Ecuador’s heads of state, viciously persecuting Rafael Correa and his Revolución Ciudadana movement on flimsy evidence, while delaying investigations into much graver crimes allegedly committed by his successors.

Recently-leaked secret chats obtained by The Grayzone expose how Ecuadorian prosecutor Diana Salazar leaked information to a subject of an ongoing investigation, undermining the prosecution of associates of Ecuador’s current and previous US-aligned presidents, and acted hand-in-glove with the United States government, which essentially selected and controlled prosecutions from Washington.

The shocking revelations of corruption and US meddling in the geopolitically-crucial South American nation have been largely ignored by the US government and corporate media outlets.

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Yet Another Drug War Failure

An especially hot news item in 2024 has been the surge of drug-related violence in Ecuador.  Until recent years, Ecuador was hailed as an island of relative stability in the swirling violence of the illegal drug trade in the Western hemisphere.  The situation there contrasted with the level of chaos and violence in neighboring countries such as Peru and Colombia, as well as the central arena of drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America.  American retirees found the country to be an especially appealing destination.

That presumption of stability was always somewhat exaggerated.  In Ecuador violent criminal gangs “have existed for decades,” security analyst David Saucedo notes, “but with the arrival of the Mexican cartels, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), they made local alliances, and in this way, they became their operating arms for drug trafficking.”

The notion of today’s Ecuador as one of Latin America’s safer countries is a tenacious episode of nostalgia.  The murder rate in that country has soared from 6.9 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019 to 26.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022, and preliminary statistics indicate that the upward trend is continuing.  When voters elected Daniel Noboa president in October 2023, he made it clear that he would take an especially hard line against the drug cartels.  Drug policy experts now talk about Ecuador with similar degrees of concern that they had reserved for Mexico and other central players in the drug trade.

Even members of the political elite in Ecuador are increasingly vulnerable to the violence.  One prominent candidate in the October 2023 presidential election was assassinated just eleven days before the balloting.  Shortly thereafter, Ecuador’s youngest mayor, Brigette Garcia, was kidnapped and murdered in the coastal town of San Vicente.  Following the January 2024 unrest, new President Daniel Noboa declared an “internal armed conflict” and ordered national security forces to neutralize more than 20 armed groups classified as “terrorists.”

Despite such spectacular policy failures, drug warriors in the United States and other countries cling to hard-line strategies and refuse to face an inconvenient economic truth.  Governments are not able to dictate whether people use mind-altering substances.  Such vices have been part of human culture throughout history.  Governments can determine only whether reputable businesses or violent criminal gangs are the suppliers.  A prohibition strategy guarantees that it will be the latter – with all the accompanying violence and corruption.  The ongoing bloody struggles among rival cartels to control the lucrative trafficking routes to the United States merely confirm that historical pattern.

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Six Suspects in Ecuadorian Presidential Candidate’s Assassination Found Dead in Jail

According to a report from CBS news, six inmates at the Litoral Penitentiary, all of whom were suspects in the August assassination of a presidential candidate in Ecuador, were killed on Oct. 6.

The inmates, all Colombian nationals, were accused of killing former presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. They were identified as: Jhon Gregore R., Andrés Manuel M., Adey Fernando G., Camilo Andrés R., Sules Osmini C. and José Neyder L.

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso announced that he would immediately convene the Security Cabinet, expressing his commitment to uncovering the truth behind the incidents, emphasizing there would be no complicity or cover-up in the investigation. 

“Following the information about the six crimes that occurred in the Deprivation of Liberty Center No. 1, in Guayaquil, I have ordered an immediate meeting of the Security Cabinet,” Lasso wrote on X, according to the site’s translation system. “In the next few hours I will return to Ecuador to attend to this emergency. Neither complicity nor cover-up, here the truth will be known.”

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US Signs Deal That Will Allow Military Deployments to Ecuador

The Biden administration has quietly struck a deal with Ecuador to deploy troops to the country and patrol the waters off its coast to combat drug cartels, the Washington Examiner reported on Friday.

Select members of Congress were informed of the agreements on Wednesday during a closed-door briefing with Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso, who was in Washington to sign the deals.

The State Department did not publicize the agreements, but a State Department official confirmed the deals were signed in comments to the Examiner. The maritime deal will allow the US Coast Guard to patrol waters off Ecuador’s coast, an area where Colombian cartels transport cocaine.

The second agreement outlines the terms by which the US troops could be deployed to Ecuador, known as a status of forces agreement. The details of the agreement are not known, and it’s also unclear if it means a US troop deployment is imminent.

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Ecuador Arrests Six Colombians as Suspects in Slaying of anti-Corruption Presidential Candidate

The six men arrested as suspects in the assassination of an anti-corruption Ecuadorian presidential candidate are Colombian nationals, a police report said Thursday as authorities investigated the motive for a crime that shocked a nation already reeling from a surge in drug-related violence.

The six men were captured hiding in a house in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, said the report, which was reviewed by The Associated Press. Officers also seized four shotguns, a 5.56-mm rifle, ammunition and three grenades, along with a vehicle and a motorcycle, it said.

Fernando Villavicencio, 59, who was known for speaking up against drug cartels, was assassinated in Quito on Wednesday, less than two weeks before a special presidential election. He was not a front-runner, but his death deepened the sense of crisis around organized crime that has already claimed thousands of lives and underscored the challenge that Ecuador’s next leader will face.

Ecuador’s interior minister, Juan Zapata, had earlier confirmed the arrest of some foreigners in the case, although he didn’t give their nationalities.

Zapata described the killing as a “political crime of a terrorist nature” aimed at sabotaging the Aug. 20 presidential election.

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