US, Ecuador conduct “deadly kinetic operations” to fight drug trafficking, video shows
US and Ecuadoran forces have carried out joint strikes inside Ecuador as part of ongoing efforts to combat drug trafficking in the South American country, according to a statement from the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).
A statement sent to X said that SOUTHCOM Commander General Francis Donovan, on the orders of Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, “ordered allied forces to support Ecuadorian forces conducting a deadly operation against designated terrorist organizations inside Ecuador on March 6.”
The post included a video showing multiple targets exploding and being destroyed. No casualty information was immediately released.
“At Ecuador’s request, the Department of Defense has taken action against X.”
Ecuador’s right-wing President Daniel Noboa said on Instagram that the strikes were aimed at a training camp of the opposition FARC terrorist group.
The project was carried out in the northeastern province of Sucumbios near the border with Colombia.
“We destroyed the hideout of Mono Tole, the leader of the CDF (Border Commandos), and the training center for drug traffickers,” the 38-year-old leader wrote in the post, which was accompanied by a video of a house explosion in a forest area.
“I congratulate our joint forces and the Ecuadorian military for the successful operation against narcoterrorists in Ecuador,” Donovan said in a statement.
“This joint and decisive action is a strategic achievement of all nations in the Western Hemisphere dedicated to disrupting and defeating drug terrorism.”
Noboa, who is a close friend of President Trump, previously said that Washington is among the “states” involved in the fight against drug cartels, which use Ecuador’s ports to smuggle cocaine to the world market.
On Saturday, Noboa posted a picture of himself standing next to Mr. Trump.
“For a long time the mafias believe that America is their territory. They can cross borders, move drugs, guns and violence without consequences,” he wrote in an Instagram post.
Noboa earlier this week had talks in Quito with Donovan and Mark Schafer, head of US Special Operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean. They discussed information exchange programs and coordinating operations at airports and seaports, Noboa’s office said in a statement.
About 70% of the drugs produced by Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest and second largest cocaine producers, respectively, are shipped to neighboring Ecuador.
The drug trade has produced a bloody turf war which has turned one of the safest countries in Latin America into one of the deadliest within a few years.
The United States and Ecuador have increased their security cooperation since Noboa took office in 2023.
Last week, Ecuadorian forces sunk the “narco sub” near its northern border as the nation works with the United States military to fight organized crime in the country.
Ecuador’s Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday that “a military operation led to the discovery of a clandestine camp and a drug vessel” in the mangrove forest of Cayapas-Mataje that was ready to be used for “illegal activities.”
Meanwhile, the American military did not say that he killed six men Sunday in a strike on a ship suspected of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
