WASHINGTON, March 7 — US and Ecuadoran forces conducted joint strikes inside Ecuador as part of ongoing operations to combat drug trafficking in the South American country, according to a statement by US Southern Command (Southcom).
The statement posted to X said Southcom Commander General Francis Donovan, at the order of Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, “directed the joint force to support Ecuadorian forces conducting lethal kinetic operations against Designated Terrorist Organisations within Ecuador March 6.”
No details on casualties were immediately provided.
“I congratulate our joint forces and the Ecuadorian armed forces for the successful operation against narcoterrorists in Ecuador,” Donovan said in a statement.
“This collaborative and decisive action is a strategic success for all nations in the Western Hemisphere committed to disrupting and defeating narcoterrorism.”
Ecuador’s right-wing President Daniel Noboa, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, previously said that Washington was among “regional allies” taking part in the operation against drug cartels, which use Ecuador’s ports to smuggle cocaine to international markets.
Noboa earlier this week held talks in Quito with Donovan and Mark Schafer, head of US Special Operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean.
During the meeting, they discussed plans for information sharing and operational coordination at airports and seaports, Noboa’s office said in a statement.
Around 70 per cent of the drugs produced by Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest and second-largest cocaine producers, respectively, are shipped through neighbouring Ecuador.
The drug trade has unleashed a bloody turf war that has turned one of Latin America’s safest countries into one of its deadliest in the space of a few years.
The United States and Ecuador have boosted their security cooperation since the right-wing Noboa came to power in 2023. — AFP
