By Alexandra Valencia, Julia Symmes Cobb and Simon Lewis
QUITO, Sept 9 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a visit to Ecuador on Wednesday that he would seek $45 million in additional security funding for the Latin American country, as well as additional equipment, to help tackle drug trafficking.
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Rubio met with Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa during a swing through three Latin American countries with leaders closely aligned with U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration’s effort to reassert U.S. dominance in the region.
Speaking after their meeting, Rubio said Washington was increasingly working with Noboa’s government to crack down on drug trafficking organizations, including with joint strikes on boats believed to be used by drug smugglers.
“These are not ordinary groups. Clearly, they engage in common crime, but they have terrorist capabilities across the region, and that must be confronted. They must be dismantled, they must be defeated, and we are committed to doing that,” Rubio said.
Rubio on Wednesday designated the Ecuador-based gang Los Tiguerones as a foreign terrorist organization, after similar designations were made against two other Ecuador-based gangs last year. The State Department said the group was linked to narcotrafficking and other illicit activity, including the live takeover of an Ecuadorean TV station in 2024.
Rubio said the U.S. would also be imposing sanctions on seven former Ecuadorean officials accused of bribery.
The Trump administration would ask Congress for $45 million to fund new commitments for Ecuador, as well as a $10 million initiative targeting illegal gold mining, gang recruitment and illicit finance, Rubio said.
He said the U.S. would deliver a 110-foot Coast Guard cutter and five interceptor vessels for the country’s navy, in addition to seven already delivered to Ecuador this year for the fight against maritime drug trafficking.
Trump has in the past praised Noboa, who took office in 2023 vowing a crackdown on violence stemming from Ecuador’s increasing role as a drug transit hub. Rights advocates have raised concerns the heavy-handed approach has only created more chaos.
Rubio on Tuesday made a similar promise of more security engagement in neighboring Colombia, where he met newly inaugurated right-wing President Abelardo De La Aspriella, who had received Trump’s endorsement.
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The U.S. pledges come as part of renewed engagement in Latin America that the Trump administration has described as a revamp of the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which asserted U.S. primacy across the Americas but which critics associate with decades of U.S. intervention.
Rubio’s trip to Latin America coincided with Trump’s midterm convention in Dallas, where the Republican president hopes to energize core supporters and help the party hold onto its congressional majorities despite polls showing he is broadly unpopular, largely due to the Iran war and the deepening cost of living crisis.
BOAT STRIKES
Rubio, speaking to reporters in Quito, acknowledged that the U.S. campaign to strike suspected drug trafficking boats had shifted to joint strikes with Ecuador, and said decisions on targeting were made on a “strike-by-strike” basis and with the cooperation of Ecuador.
“Our goal is not to go after fishermen. Our goal is to go after drug traffickers,” he said in response to questions about criticism over the campaign.
Ecuador’s defense minister last week also defended several recent operations where Ecuadorean vessels were intercepted and sunk, saying they were the product of joint investigations to disrupt drug trafficking.
The sinkings are the latest in a broader U.S. military campaign known as Operation Southern Spear, which has destroyed some 70 vessels and killed more than 220 people over the past year, drawing criticism from human rights groups and some Latin American leaders who call the strikes extrajudicial killings.
Though the U.S. government has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks as part of Southern Spear, it has not claimed three others this year which bear the hallmarks of U.S. strikes, involving fishing vessels from Ecuador’s Manabi province.
In those incidents crew members, including some interviewed by Reuters, say their vessels were hit with strikes. One boat disappeared and the crews of the other two were repatriated via El Salvador.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito, Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota, Simon Lewis and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Alistair Bell and Deepa Babington)
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