Ecuador launches two weeks of US-backed anti-drug operations

Ecuador has launched two weeks of anti-drug operations with support from the United States, the latest joint show of force against powerful trafficking networks that have transformed the once-peaceful country into one of Latin America’s most violent.

The campaign began late Sunday and will run until March 31, with Ecuadoran security forces carrying out a “very strong offensive” against organised crime groups in the regions hardest hit by drug-related violence, Interior Minister John Reimberg said.

Around 75,000 soldiers and police officers are taking part in the operation, supported by convoys of armoured vehicles, motorcycles and helicopters, according to images released by the government. Authorities have provided few operational details and it remains unclear whether US personnel will take part directly on Ecuadoran soil.

Night-time curfews have been imposed in the coastal provinces of Guayas, Los Ríos, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and El Oro. Residents there are barred from leaving their homes between 11pm and 5am for the duration of the crackdown, with police checkpoints set up across affected areas.

“We’re at war,” Reimberg said as the operation began, urging residents to stay indoors. “Don’t take any risks. Stay home.”

Only travellers with airline tickets, emergency services and health workers will be allowed to circulate during the curfew hours. Those who violate the restrictions could face prison sentences of up to three years.

The offensive comes as Ecuador deepens its security partnership with Washington as part of a 17-country cartel-fighting alliance launched by US President Donald Trump earlier this month under the banner “Shield of the Americas.”

President Daniel Noboa, one of Trump’s staunchest allies in the region, has pursued an iron-fisted security policy since taking office in November 2023. His government has repeatedly declared states of emergency and deployed the military against criminal gangs.

Despite the aggressive approach, crime linked to drug trafficking – including murders, disappearances and extortion – has continued to rise.

Ecuador does not produce cocaine, but its ports have become a major export point for the drug. Around 70 percent of cocaine produced in neighbouring Colombia and Peru – the world’s largest and second-largest producers – is trafficked through Ecuador before reaching markets such as the United States.

The drug trade has unleashed a brutal turf war between gangs, pushing Ecuador’s homicide rate to about 52 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Observatory of Organised Crime.

Security cooperation with Washington has intensified in recent months. Last week Ecuadoran forces, with US support, bombed a camp belonging to the Comandos de la Frontera, a dissident faction of Colombia’s former FARC guerrillas operating near the border between the two countries.

The Ecuadoran government also announced last week that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation will open its first office in the country to investigate organised crime, money-laundering and corruption alongside local police.

Interior Minister Reimberg said the FBI’s work would begin immediately. The US Embassy in Quito described the move as a “strategic and operational milestone” that would help authorities “identify, dismantle and bring to justice those who traffic drugs, launder money, smuggle weapons and finance terrorism.”

The bureau already maintains offices in several Latin American countries, including Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico and Panama.

For many Ecuadorans, however, the new crackdown brings mixed feelings. Night-time workers such as transport staff and restaurant employees say the curfew will hit their incomes.

“It will be hard for many because of work,” said Luis Villacís, a 58-year-old security guard. “But it’s necessary to try to control the insecurity we’re living with.”

Others worry about potential abuses by security forces. Human rights groups have previously criticised Noboa’s frequent states of emergency and the heavy deployment of troops in urban areas.

The issue of foreign military presence is also sensitive. Ecuadorans rejected a proposal to allow foreign military bases in the country in a recent referendum promoted by Noboa. The United States previously operated an air base in the coastal city of Manta for a decade before it was closed in 2009.

Still, Noboa’s government insists the campaign is necessary to confront criminal networks that have turned Ecuador into one of the main gateways for cocaine shipments leaving South America.

– TIMES/AFP