The U.S. military said Tuesday that it launched a joint operation with Ecuador against drug gangs as the Trump administration expands its campaign against drug traffickers in Latin America.
The U.S. Southern Command said on X that Ecuadorean and U.S. military forces launched operations against designated terrorist organizations in Ecuador. The U.S. previously designated Ecuador’s biggest drug gangs—Los Choneros and Los Lobos—as terrorist organizations.
“Together, we are taking decisive action to confront narco-terrorists who have long inflicted terror, violence, and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere,” said the Southern Command , without providing more details of the operation.
The operation comes a day after Southcom commander Gen. Francis Donovan visited Ecuador’s capital, Quito, and met with President Daniel Noboa and other senior officials to discuss expanding security cooperation against narcoterrorism. He praised Ecuador as “one of the United States’ strongest partners” in going after drug traffickers and criminal groups.
Last year, the Trump administration launched a military campaign against low-level drug traffickers by blowing up alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific. The designation of Los Choneros and Los Lobos unlocked new authorities to use military force against them. During a visit in September, Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledged $20 million to help crack down on drug groups, including $6 million for drones for the Ecuadorean military.
The U.S. military also deployed a contingent of U.S. Air Force personnel to the Ecuadorean military base at Manta in December for a short-term mission to support antidrug operations.
Ecuador has become a crucial transit country for moving cocaine to the U.S. and Europe from neighboring Colombia. The increase in drug trafficking has fueled a surge in bloodshed in recent years as local gangs with connections to Mexican cartels and European crime syndicates fight for control of drug routes.
Ecuador now has one of the highest homicide rates in the world after once being one of Latin America’s safest nations.
Noboa, a conservative ally of the Trump administration, has pledged to use an iron fist to dismantle drug gangs, deploying soldiers in streets and building a new maximum security prison. Since 2024, he repeatedly has used emergency-security measures to give him more power to go after crime groups and increased military involvement. He is scheduled to travel to Miami this week to meet with President Trump, along with other conservative Latin American leaders.
Ecuadorean security forces have had some success against gangs, including the capture of the country’s two most powerful drug bosses last year. But killings have continued to soar, reaching a record of more than 50 per 100,000 people in 2025. Colombia has had a homicide rate of about half that in recent years, while Mexico was below 20 per 100,000, according to Insight Crime.
Noboa had proposed a constitutional change to allow the U.S. to operate a military base in Ecuador. But voters rejected the proposal in a referendum last year.
On Monday, the Ecuadorean leader said his government was beginning “a new phase against narcoterrorism and illegal mining.”
“In the month of March, we will conduct joint operations with our regional allies, including the United States,” he said. “To achieve that peace, we must act forcefully against criminals, wherever they may be.”
Write to Ryan Dubé at ryan.dube@wsj.com and Vera Bergengruen at vera.bergengruen@wsj.com
