This week’s edition of On the Radar examines key developments in organized crime across South America, focusing on shifting tactics in Ecuador, security reforms in Peru, and the ongoing challenge of coca cultivation in Bolivia.
1. US Forces Sink Another Ecuadorian Boat Linked to the Choneros
US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) recently intercepted and sank an Ecuadorian vessel alleged to serve as a mobile drug-refueling station for the Choneros, one of the country’s most powerful criminal organizations. While US authorities assert the vessel’s involvement in illicit trafficking, the crew’s families and vessel owners have vehemently denied any organized crime connections. This interception marks the fifth such sinking of Ecuadorian boats by US forces in September alone, highlighting an intensifying maritime interdiction campaign.
These operations are conducted under the “Shield of the Americas” bilateral security framework, signaling a deepening tactical alliance between Washington and Quito. Unlike broader US maritime campaigns in the Pacific and Caribbean, which have relied on lethal missile strikes resulting in over 227 fatalities over the past year, the Ecuador-focused operations prioritize non-lethal boarding procedures, crew detention, and subsequent vessel sinking.
2. Peru Declares State of Emergency in Five Prisons
Peru’s government, under President Keiko Fujimori, has declared a 60-day state of emergency across five high-security penitentiaries: Challapalca, Cochamarca, Miguel Castro Castro, Ancón I, and Trujillo Varones. The decree, which suspends constitutional protections regarding free movement, assembly, and personal security within a 200-meter perimeter of these facilities, deploys military personnel to secure the prison boundaries. Officials justified the measure by asserting that inmate leaders continue to orchestrate extortion, contract killings, and drug trafficking from within the prison walls.
This emergency declaration represents the first concrete implementation of Fujimori’s campaign promise to adopt a tough-on-crime stance, which also includes ambitious plans to construct high-security mega-prisons inspired by El Salvador’s CECOT model. However, analysts caution that increasing external security around Peru’s severely overcrowded and understaffed prisons may do little to dismantle the entrenched criminal command structures operating from within. This policy shift aligns with a broader regional trend of populist leaders adopting aggressive, hardline security postures, echoing both Nayib Bukele’s approach in El Salvador and the previous Trump administration’s rhetoric on transnational crime.
3. Bolivia’s Coca Crop Keeps Growing, Even as a New Government Promises Change
According to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) monitoring report, coca cultivation in Bolivia expanded by 7% in 2025, reaching 36,400 hectares—significantly exceeding the country’s legal cultivation limit by 14,400 hectares. The increase was heavily concentrated in Cochabamba, a traditional coca-growing region and historical stronghold of former MAS leader Evo Morales. This data was released concurrently with the Bolivian government’s introduction of a new $492 million counternarcotics strategy for the 2026–2030 period, which relies on joint state and international funding.
Interior Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo emphasized that the new strategy will be guided by principles of “sovereignty” and “non-interference,” positioning international cooperation as a mechanism to bolster national institutional capacities. While this rhetoric reflects Bolivia’s traditional skepticism toward US-led counternarcotics initiatives—historically culminating in Evo Morales’ expulsion of the DEA in 2008—the administration of President Rodrigo Paz has actively reversed course. Under Paz, Bolivia has re-engaged with the DEA, announcing new collaborative agreements focusing on illicit financial flows, trafficking routes, and transnational criminal networks.