Seoul Gazette - Ecuador launches joint anti-drug operations with US

Noboa, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, said the United States was among "regional allies" taking part in a "new phase" of Ecuador's war on the drug cartels which use its ports to smuggle cocaine to international markets.

"In March, we will conduct joint operations with our regional allies, including the United States," he wrote on X.

On Monday, Noboa held talks in Quito with US Southern Command chief Francis 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 percent of the drugs produced by Colombia and Peru, the world's largest and second-largest cocaine producers, respectively, are shipped through neighboring Ecuador.

The drug trade has unleashed a bloody turf war that has turned one of the Latin America's safest countries into one of its deadliest in the space of a few years.

At a meeting with police earlier, Noboa announced a curfew from March 15 to 30 in Ecuador's four most violent provinces: Guayas, Los Rios, Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas and El Oro.

Interior Minister John Reimberg told reporters his advice to local residents was: "Stay home. We are at war."

The United States and Ecuador have boosted their security cooperation since the right-wing Noboa came to power in 2023.

Noboa last year pushed for the reopening of a shuttered US military base but was shot down by Ecuadorans who voted in a November referendum against overturning a ban on foreign bases.

In December, the United States announced a temporary deployment of Air Force personnel to the former US base in the port city of Manta.

P.Hwang--SG