U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated Thursday that the US is designating two Ecuadorian gangs as international terrorist organizations within the Trump administration’s newest transfer towards cartels.
The announcement got here as Rubio traveled to Ecuador to fulfill with its leaders in a visit to Latin America this week that has been overshadowed by a U.S. navy strike towards a equally designated gang, Tren de Aragua. The strike has raised considerations within the area about whether or not the Trump administration will step up navy exercise to fight drug trafficking and unlawful migration.
The 2 new designees, Los Lobos and Los Choneros, are Ecuadorian gangs blamed for a lot of the violence that started for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic. The designation, Rubio stated, brings “all kinds of choices” for the U.S. authorities to work at the side of the federal government of Ecuador to crack down on these teams.
That features the power to kill them in addition to take motion towards the properties and banking accounts within the U.S. for the group’s members and folks with ties to the felony organizations, Rubio stated, including it will additionally assist with intelligence sharing.
Rubio referred to as them “vicious animals, these terrorists.”
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Legal gang violence continues unabated following the recapture in June of the nation’s greatest drug lord, Adolfo Macías, who leads Los Choneros, after his escape from a maximum-security jail in 2024. In July, the Ecuadoran authorities extradited Macias to the US, the place he faces a number of drug trafficking and firearms costs.
Final 12 months, the U.S. categorised Los Choneros as probably the most violent gangs and affirmed its connection to highly effective Mexican drug cartels who threaten Ecuador and the encompassing area.
Earlier this 12 months, a frontrunner of Los Lobos was arrested at his dwelling within the coastal metropolis of Portoviejo. Carlos D, broadly identified by his alias El Chino, was the second-in-command of Los Lobos and “thought of a high-value goal,” the armed forces stated in a press release.
The U.S. final 12 months declared Los Lobos to be the most important drug trafficking group in Ecuador.
“Interdiction would not work”
Rubio’s conferences in Quito on Thursday comply with talks a day earlier with Mexican leaders that had been overshadowed by the U.S. navy strike on suspected Tren de Aragua drug runners within the southern Caribbean.
The Trump administration asserts that it focused a Venezuelan drug-running ship crewed by members of Tren de Aragua. U.S. officers say the vessel’s cargo was supposed for the US and that the strike killed 11 folks.
Rubio defended the motion and provided no justification aside from to say the boat posed an “quick menace” to the U.S. and that Trump opted to “blow it up” somewhat than comply with what had been commonplace process to cease and board, arrest the crew and seize any contraband on board.
“Interdiction would not work,” Rubio stated Wednesday. “As a substitute of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up. And it will occur once more. Possibly it is taking place proper now, I do not know, however the level is the president of the US goes to wage struggle on narco-terrorist organizations.”
Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth stated on Wednesday that U.S. navy belongings will stay within the area, and that extra strikes could also be forthcoming.
“It is a lethal, severe mission for us and it will not cease with simply this strike,” Hegseth advised Fox Information. “Anybody else trafficking in these waters who we all know is a delegated narco-terrorist will face the identical destiny.”
The strike received a combined response from leaders round Latin America, the place the U.S. historical past of navy intervention and gunboat diplomacy continues to be contemporary. Many, like officers in Mexico, had been cautious to not outright condemn the assault however careworn the significance of defending nationwide sovereignty and warning that expanded U.S. navy involvement would possibly truly backfire.
Mexico International Affairs Secretary Ramón de la Fuente, talking to reporters alongside Rubio, emphasised his nation’s desire for “nonintervention, peaceable answer of conflicts.”
Ecuador has its personal points with narcotics trafficking and likewise has been regarded to by the Trump administration as a potential vacation spot to deport non-Ecuadorian migrants from the US. U.S. officers have stated they wish to safe an settlement with Ecuador that may have it settle for such deportees, however the standing of negotiations with Quito was not clear.
Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, on Thursday thanked Rubio for the U.S. efforts to “truly eradicate any terrorist menace.” Earlier than their assembly, Rubio had stated on social media that the U.S. and Ecuador are “aligned as key companions on ending unlawful immigration and combatting transnational crime and terrorism.”
Surging violence since COVID-19 pandemic
The most recent U.N. World Drug Report says varied international locations in South America, together with Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, reported bigger cocaine seizures in 2022 than in 2021, however it doesn’t give Venezuela the outsize position that the White Home has in current months.
“The influence of elevated cocaine trafficking has been felt in Ecuador specifically, which has seen a wave of deadly violence lately linked to each native and transnational crime teams, most notably from Mexico and the Balkan international locations,” the report says.
Violence has skyrocketed in Ecuador for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic, as drug traffickers expanded operations within the nation and took benefit of the nation’s banana business.
The South American nation is the world’s largest exporter of bananas, delivery about 7.2 million tons a 12 months by sea. Traffickers discover containers crammed with bananas the proper automobile to smuggle their product.
As well as, cartels from Mexico, Colombia and the Balkans have settled in Ecuador as a result of it makes use of the U.S. greenback and has weak legal guidelines and establishments, together with a community of long-established, ruthless gangs which can be anticipating work.
Ecuador additionally gained prominence within the world cocaine commerce after political modifications in Colombia final decade. Coca bush fields in Colombia have been transferring nearer to the border with Ecuador because of the breakup of felony teams after the 2016 demobilization of the insurgent group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, higher identified by its Spanish acronym FARC.
Rubio can also be visiting the Andean nation to argue towards its shut ties and reliance on China.
contributed to this report.
