Borrowing a Page From El Salvador’s Bukele, Ecuadoran President Welcomes American Troops To Assist With His Drug Gang Crackdown

The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, says he would welcome American troops in Ecuador to help combat drug gangs that have driven up the homicide rate in the South American country to their highest levels in decades.“If they’re willing to follow the lead of Ecuadorian armed forces, then no problem,” Mr. Noboa said in an interview with Bloomberg.Ecuador has one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America and killings soared 50 percent last year. Mr. Noboa blames the increase on lower-level leaders of drug gangs fighting each other for control after a crackdown on the main criminal organizations left a void at the top.Ecuador is a transit country for cocaine originating in Colombia and Peru. It is also attractive for drug traffickers to launder money because it uses the United States Dollar as its official currency. The United States State Department has a level 2 travel advisory for Ecuador warning of risks of crime, terrorism, unrest, and kidnapping in parts of the country.Mr. Noboa is one of President Trump’s closest allies in the region and has launched a security crackdown that involves the military controlling prisons and heavy security force deployment. The moves are similar to the “iron fist” security model being carried out by El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele.Mr. Noboa says, however, his approach has differences to what Mr. Bukele has done. “I would say an iron fist is an iron fist with a heart,” Mr. Noboa says. “It’s an iron fist, also with an economic strategy. It’s an iron fist with, with job generation and job creation.”Ecuador has longstanding ties to the American armed forces and the Pentagon says bilateral cooperation continues to grow. The United States and Ecuador carried out a joint operation against “designated terrorist organizations” in March.Mr. Noboa says American troops were not directly involved in ground operations but American technology helped identify locations for target tracking.“It’s not an invasion, it’s not, uh, it’s not an intruder coming to our country,” Mr. Noboa said. “It’s actually international collaboration against crime.”The United States Southern Command said the operation is an example of a joint commitment to combat narco-terrorism.“Ecuador is one of the United States’ strongest partners in disrupting and dismantling Designated Terrorist Organizations in the region,” the commander of U.S. Southern Command, Marine General Francis Donovan said in a release. “The Ecuadorian people have witnessed firsthand the terror, violence, and corruption that these narco-terrorists inflict on communities across the region.”In another show of cooperation, the American and Ecuadorian navies are holding joint exercises in the Pacific this week to target drug trafficking.“They’re willing to collaborate. They want to collaborate. It’s not follow orders, it’s collaborative,” Mr. Noboa said of his American partnership.Mr. Noboa says there are ways for American troops to be deployed in Ecuador despite voters last year rejecting a proposal to allow foreign military bases. It was a blow to Mr. Noboa, who said they would be crucial to fight drug traffickers. He now says any American troops would be in the country temporarily and would not need permanent bases.Mr. Noboa says he has had conversations with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio but there is no commitment for an expanded presence of American boots on the ground in Ecuador.“I think it could happen this year. I think it would be important,” Mr. Noboa said.

Borrowing a Page From El Salvador’s Bukele, Ecuadoran President Welcomes American Troops To Assist With His Drug Gang Crackdown

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