US pledges $45m in security aid and naval vessels to Ecuador

Donald Trump’s administration will seek $45 million in security funding for Ecuador as part of its cooperation with the country’s right-wing government.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the proposed package during a Wednesday visit to Quito, the Ecuadorian capital.

Rubio praised President Daniel Noboa’s administration as the “most involved and aggressive partner” Washington has worked with to dismantle criminal networks and bring individuals to justice who had previously escaped prosecution.

Beyond the $45 million security package, Rubio said the administration would launch a $10 million initiative targeting illegal gold mining, gang recruitment and drug trafficking.

The US also plans to provide Ecuador with a Coast Guard cutter and five interceptor vessels, supplementing seven vessels the US delivered earlier this year.

Rubio’s Ecuador visit forms part of a three-day, three-country tour of South America that began in Colombia. He is scheduled to continue to Peru on Thursday.

Security has dominated the trip as Washington seeks to expand its influence across the Western Hemisphere through increasingly forceful military action against transnational crime.

The Trump administration has also classified several Latin American criminal organizations as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

“These are not ordinary groups,” Rubio said in Quito. “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.”

During the Quito stop, the US designated Los Tiguerones, an Ecuador-based drug trafficking network, as a foreign terrorist organization. Washington accused the group of trafficking narcotics and participating in the violent seizure of a television station in 2024.

Ecuador has pursued an increasingly strict security policy since 2023 under Noboa.

The youngest president in Ecuador’s modern history, Noboa first won election to complete the term of a government abruptly dissolved in 2023. Ahead of his successful re-election bid in 2025, he emphasized public security and promised a forceful crackdown on crime.

Ecuador’s crime rate has surged since the COVID-19 pandemic, with drug trafficking organizations making greater use of the country’s Pacific ports.

To confront the crisis, Noboa has deployed thousands of military personnel and police officers to areas devastated by violence. He has also described the conflict with drug traffickers as a “state of war.”

The strategy closely mirrors the Trump administration’s security agenda, and relations between the two governments have strengthened since Trump returned to office in 2025.

In March, the US confirmed that it was conducting joint military operations with Ecuador.

Noboa’s government and other right-wing administrations in the region have also joined the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, a security framework established and led by Washington.

Ecuador has recently worked with the US to intercept and attack boats suspected of carrying narcotics.

On Tuesday, for example, US authorities intercepted a vessel they said was linked to the Los Choneros criminal group and transferred its suspects to Ecuadorian officials. It marked the sixth operation of its kind in less than two weeks.

Both governments have faced allegations of human rights violations in connection with their anti-drug operations.

Since September 2, 2025, the US has conducted roughly 68 lethal strikes against boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific as part of a campaign targeting people it describes as “narco-terrorists.”

More than 220 people have died in those operations. Some families in Ecuador have accused the Trump administration of attacking and killing fishermen with no connection to drug trafficking.

An Ecuadorian survivor of a US boat strike was returned to Ecuador in October 2025 and later released from custody because prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence. Legal experts have characterized the attacks as extrajudicial killings that violate international law.

During his visit, however, Rubio defended the boat-strike campaign. “Our goal is not to go after fishermen. Our goal is to go after drug traffickers,” he said.

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