Ecuador over the weekend launched a major military offensive against drug “mafias” in the country, an operation that is being carried out with support from the United States.
Over the next two weeks, criminal organizations in several violence-plagued provinces, including Guayas, Los Rios, and Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, are being targeted, with U.S. logistical support. Authorities have imposed a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. in the coastal provinces, effective until March 30. A total of 75,000 Ecuadoran police and soldiers have been deployed in the effort, according to Interior Minister John Reimberg.
“35,000 police officers from Ecuador’s National Police deployed in Guayas, Los Ríos, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, and El Oro,” Reimberg wrote in a warning to cartel members posted to X, translated from Spanish. “To the mafias: your time is up. Nothing stops us.”
The U.S. and Ecuador had previously launched joint strikes on “designated terrorist organizations” in the South American nation, the U.S. Southern Command said earlier this month. The latest Ecuadoran raids are ongoing, as authorities seek to root out the country’s notorious cartel presence. Ecuador’s location between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest producers of cocaine, makes it a prime shipping location for narcotics. Around 70% of the drugs produced by its two neighbors flow through Ecuador.
Reimberg on Wednesday previewed the curfew, explaining that it meant to avoid “collateral victims from the attacks we are about to launch.”
“We have significant support from U.S. forces for the operations we are about to carry out,” he said at the time.
The same day, the U.S. announced plans to establish the first-ever FBI office in the South American country, a move hailed by U.S. Embassy Charge d’Affaires Lawrence Petroni as “a very important milestone” in strengthening the operational bond between the FBI and Ecuadorian police.
Ecuador is notably part of the new “Shield of the Americas” coalition, which is headed by soon-to-be U.S. special envoy Kristi Noem, and is aimed in part at eradicating cartel influence from the Western Hemisphere.
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Earlier this month, Trump spoke to the coalition for the first time. He told leaders from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, among others, that the “heart” of the coalition represented a “commitment to using lethal military force” against drug cartels.
“I want to thank our partners for joining the United States in a shared commitment to combat the destabilizing forces of transnational criminal organizations and narco-terrorists in our region,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
