The United States and Ecuadorian governments’ joint military operations in Ecuador, carried out on March 1–6, were denounced for human rights violations and projecting US imperial power in the region under the guise of combating “organised crime”.
Operation “Total Extermination”, ostensibly aimed at dismantling “criminal groups”, involved joint aerial and ground operations in the country’s northern border region, including intelligence-sharing, surveillance flights and military attacks on rural properties.
The Ecuadorian military attacked a cattle farm in San Martín, a remote village in the northern province of Sucumbíos, on March 3, burning abandoned buildings. Soldiers abducted four workers from the farm, flew them by helicopter to a military base and tortured them for hours before abandoning them far from their homes.
During interrogations about alleged links to armed groups, soldiers subjected the workers to beatings and electric shocks.
US and Ecuadorian military personnel returned to the farm on March 6 and bombed the property, destroying buildings and animal pens. The Ecuadorian government later claimed that the property was being used by an armed group to hide weapons and as a training camp, despite providing no evidence.
Human Rights Watch Americas director Juanita Goebertus called for an independent investigation into the joint military operations and potential breaches of international human rights law.
These actions form part of a broader escalation of militarisation in Ecuador, justified by the government as combatting organised crime. This mirrors the US’s long-running “War on Drugs”, which served as a pretext for political and military interventions across Latin America.
Under US President Donald Trump, this strategy has combined with rhetoric invoking the supposed threat of “narcoterrorism” to justify expanded military operations in the region. The US military has bombed several fishing boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September last year, killing at least 150 people.
Trump regards Ecuadorian far-right president Daniel Noboa as a close ally.
Noboa’s “fight against organised crime” is being used to justify authoritarian rule and the expansion of extractive industries. Militarised curfews and suspended constitutional rights have become the norm in provinces targeted for oil, mining and agribusiness projects, particularly in communities putting up strong resistance.
Ecuador recently launched military airstrikes in the country’s north along the Ecuador-Colombia border, ostensibly targeting drug trafficking and illegal mining. These strikes drew condemnation from Colombian President Gustavo Petro for violating Colombia’s sovereignty.
Noboa’s hypocrisy on “narcotrafficking” was laid bare by a report exposing that his family company was involved in exporting huge quantities of cocaine hidden in banana shipments.
Last year, Ecuadorians overwhelmingly voted to reject Noboa’s plans to reestablish foreign military bases in the country. However, despite popular resistance, the Ecuadorian government has continued to align itself closely with US imperial interests.
The deepening security ties between Ecuador and the US includes the announcement on March 11 that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation would open a permanent office in the capital, Quito, ostensibly to help tackle drug trafficking and organised crime.
The FBI, along with the CIA, has a long history of meddling in Latin America, supporting violent dictatorships, surveilling workers and activists and protecting US corporate interests.
Noboa is a billionaire and has implemented a brutal neoliberal assault since taking office in November 2023. He attended the Shield of the Americas Summit in Florida on March 7, where Trump announced the creation of a new “military coalition” focused on limiting “foreign influence” in Latin America — broadly understood to mean China.
Trump’s renewed push echoes the Monroe Doctrine — a racist, imperial ideology that views the Western Hemisphere as the US’s backyard.
Noboa has followed International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan conditions to the letter: slashing public spending, expanding extractive frontiers for private capital and attacking workers’ rights. Ecuador is now one of the most indebted countries to the IMF, with debts of more than US$7 billion.
Noboa’s ministers rammed through a decree last month signalling a plan to increase the working day from eight hours to 10, which was met by significant workers’ protests on March 13.