But what if one of the country’s biggest drug cartels is being run by the US-born president’s family business?
The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that the US and Ecuador have launched joint military operations against “designated terrorist organizations” in the South American country. The statement was accompanied by footage of military helicopters taking off, as well as black-and-white aerial surveillance imagery of figures boarding helicopters on the ground.
The Times described the move as a “major expansion of the US military’s (NC: flagrantly illegal) unilateral strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific that the Trump administration has accused of carrying drugs (NC: without presenting a shred of evidence)“:
U.S. Special Forces soldiers are advising and supporting Ecuadorian commandos on raids across the country against suspected drug shipment facilities and other drug-related sites, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
The Americans are not believed to be participating in the actual raids, but are helping the Ecuadorian troops plan their operations, and are providing intelligence and logistics support, the official said.
In a 30-second video released by the military’s Southern Command, a helicopter is seen taking off in early morning or dusk, flying over an area, then picking up soldiers. The U.S. official said the video depicted the first in what was expected to be a series of raids across the country, some with U.S. advisers nearby assisting, some with Ecuadorian forces only. In this instance, involving mostly Ecuadorian forces, the official said, it was unclear what the mission’s objective was or whether it was successful.
“The operations are a powerful example of the commitment of partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the scourge of narco-terrorism,” the United States Southern Command said in a statement, which did not provide other details about the operations.
The White House did not immediately comment on the military activity.
So, even as Washington helps Israel rain down death and destruction upon Iran and its allies in West Asia, triggering a regionwide conflagration, it is also escalating its so called “war” on Latin America’s “narco-terrorist” drug cartels — a war that is really nothing more than a flimsy pretext to justify deploying US military forces in yet another wave of resource plunder.
This is not just about seizing Latin America’s critical minerals but also keeping them out of the hands of the US’ peer rival, China, whose footprint in the region has mushroomed in recent years. As we first warned in September 2023, the US is seeking to reimpose its strategic and economic stranglehold over South America — or failing that, to sow enough chaos and division in the region to undermine China’s growing economic influence there.
The Trump administration has already taken control of Venezuela’s oil, making sure China is left out of the equation; now, it has its eyes on the country’s gold. And by the way, Venezuela is believed to hold the largest untapped gold resources in Latin America — at least 644 metric tonnes, according to 2018 estimates by the Chavista government.
Meanwhile, Washington has threatened to indict interim leader Delcy Rodríguez if she doesn’t toe the line. According to sources cited by Reuters, “federal prosecutors have put together possible corruption and money laundering charges, and have communicated to Rodriguez that she is at risk of prosecution unless she continues to comply with Trump’s demands.”
“Plan Ecuador”
The deployment of troops to Ecuador, while hugely controversial in the Andean country (for reasons that will be explained shortly), has been on the cards for some time. As long-standing NC readers may recall, Ecuador’s government — both in its current form and that of its predecessor, the scandal-tarnished, Albania mafia-tied Guillermo Lasso administration — have been calling for a “Plan Colombia”-style arrangement with the US since at least June 2022.
In a June 21, 2022 article on left-leaning Gustavo Petro’s historic electoral victory in Colombia, “A Political Earthquake Just Took Place in Latin America“, we noted that while said victory may spell the end of the US’ decades-long military “partnership” with Colombia, Washington is already putting a contingency plan in place — in neighbouring Ecuador:
Just two weeks [earlier], the right-wing president of Ecuador (and former senior banker and Coca Cola executive) Guillermo Lasso [had] asked the United States for a military and security aid package similar to Plan Colombia, ostensibly to help in the fight against organized crime.
That plan began taking shape over the next couple of years. Lasso himself would end up being forced to resign after just two years in office over his alleged ties to the Albanian mafia, which played a key role in turning Ecuador into the world’s largest exporter of cocaine. As the NYT article notes, though Ecuador does not produce the drug, it has come to serve as a key trafficking route for criminal groups operating in Colombia and Peru.
Before leaving the scene (to head off into the Floridan sunset, where he was awarded the keys to Miami no less), Lasso spent his last months in office stitching together secret agreements with lawmakers in Washington — all with the ostensible aim of combatting drug trafficking organizations.
Obviously, that was not what this was about. If Washington were serious about tackling the violence generated by the drug cartels, the first thing it would do is pass legislation to stem the southward flow of US-produced guns and other weapons. But that would hurt the profits of arms manufacturers.
And if it were remotely serious about tackling the major cause of its drug problem — the rampant consumption of narcotics within its own borders — it would never have let Big Pharma unleash the opium epidemic in the first place. And once it had, it would never have let the perps walk free with the daintiest of financial slaps on the wrists.
Ultimately, if the US government were genuinely serious about tackling the drug trafficking cartels, which have become a major problem for both the US and its continental neighbours, it would shut down the CIA.
“Internal Armed Conflict”
Needless to say, Plan Colombia (2000-15) was a resounding failure from a counter-narcotics perspective, as even the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee admitted in 2020. However, it provided benefits from a counter-insurgency perspective, which was presumably the goal all along.
When Daniel Noboa, the US-born son of Ecuadorian banana magnate Alvaro Noboa, came to power in late 2023, not only did he sign on to Lasso’s “Plan Ecuador” plan; he quickly declared an “internal armed conflict” against the drug cartels, whom he designated as “terrorist organisations” and “belligerent non-state actors”.
This move opened the door wider to the prospect of more US military support, and even direct military intervention from the US armed forces — just as is happening now. As we warned at the time, Noboa’s “internal armed conflict” would trigger an even sharper rise in the country’s homicide rate, which was already among the highest in Latin America. So it has proven.
Last year saw a total of 9,216 homicides — more than one per hour and a 30% increase on 2024, according to official figures. It was Ecuador’s most violent year on record. The second most violent was 2024, the year Noboa declared the “internal armed conflict”. To put this in perspective, if Ecuador were the size of Mexico (in population terms), the death toll in 2025 would have been 68,000 — more than double Mexico’s worst year of violence this century.
Which brings us back to the present. Ecuador’s presidential office has issued a statement indicating that the “visit (of the Southern Command) is part of the bilateral dialogue to deepen cooperation and coordination in the face of transnational threats that affect national and regional stability”:
“[D]uring this meeting, lines of technical and institutional coordination aimed at strengthening hemispheric security and confronting transnational organized crime and narcoterrorism were reviewed, with a joint work approach that prioritizes the protection of citizens and the strengthening of the capacities of the State, in strict respect of sovereignty and internal regulations.”
“…[To this end,] joint initiatives are planned to strengthen controls, the exchange of information and operational coordination, both at airports and port terminals, in order to identify risks and prevent criminal activities”.
On Tuesday, Noboa himself published a tweet announcing”:
“We are starting a new phase against narco-terrorism and illegal mining. In March, we will conduct joint operations with our allies in the region, including the United States. The security of Ecuadorians is our priority and we will fight to obtain peace in every corner of the country.”
The images showing US helicopters landing at the airport of the Ecuadorian coastal city of Manta are particularly controversial given that the people of Ecuador already voted in a referendum 17 years ago to close down the US military base at Manta. Besides evicting US military personnel from Ecuador, the then-Rafael Correa government inserted an article (#5) into the country’s 2008 constitution stipulating that Ecuador is a country of peace, and expressly prohibiting the establishment of foreign military bases or foreign facilities for military purposes.
The Noboa government recently tried to overturn this article through a constitutional amendment, but in a November referendum an overwhelming majority of Ecuadorians voted against the reinstalment of foreign military bases on Ecuadorian soil. Some Ecuadorians are now, understandably, asking how the stationing of US military personnel at Manta for an indeterminate period of time does not constitute the de facto establishment of a joint military base.
Bananas + Cocaine = Big Business
Another reason why this recent deployment of US troops, with the ostensible purpose of bolstering the Noboa government’s fight against the drug cartels, is controversial is that the Noboa family’s banana export business has been repeatedly implicated in cocaine trafficking.
In April last year, the Grayzone’s Oscar Leon interviewed Andres Durán, an Ecuadorian investigative journalist who was forced to flee his country after making allegations that Noboa, his family and their inner circle are intimately involved in the international drug trade. In that interview (featured below), Durán explained that:
- Multiple cocaine trafficking scandals have involved Noboa-owned companies (e.g., Noboa Trading, Blasti S.A., Transmabo) and a family farm (San Luis), including shipments intercepted in Europe and 193 kg seized in 2025.
- Ecuador is the primary point of departure for cocaine shipments to the US and Europe, with Noboa’s family businesses repeatedly linked to drug seizures
- Investigations are allegedly obstructed without thorough probes, no arrests of high-level figures, while cases are dismissed as “contamination” despite Noboa companies controlling the full supply chain
- Ecuador’s criminal economy is estimated at a staggering 18-22% of GDP thanks to weak state oversight, dollarization, and documented ties to the Albanian mafia.
Durán also accused Noboa of heading a “criminal economy” enabled by government policies seeking to defund port security, deregulate banana exports, gut financial oversight, and use shell companies for money laundering.
Allegations of Assassination
It doesn’t end there. In recent days, Noboa has been accused by Wilmer Chavarría, alias “Pipo”, one of the leaders of Ecuador’s most powerful drug trafficking cartel, Los Lobos, of ordering the 2023 assassination of the former journalist and presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio…
Nick Corbishley 