Ecuador’s administration stated that it anticipates signing “fundamental” security agreements with the US to address the country’s widespread cartel violence as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Ecuador on Wednesday.
Cocaine trafficking from South America to Europe, the US, and Asia now mostly passes through Ecuador, drawing criminal gangs from all over the world.
Late on Wednesday, Rubio reached Quito, the capital. He will meet with right-wing President Daniel Noboa on Thursday, who has aimed to increase domestic military use, much like US President Donald Trump.
Earlier in the day, Ecuador’s Interior Minister John Reimberg said he expected “agreements” soon with the United States to help combat violence that has transformed the country from one of Latin America’s safest to one of the most deadly.
The United States “is a country that has maintained constant assistance in various issues,” Reimberg told the Teleamazonas channel.
“We will see many more agreements that are fundamental to the security of our country.”
Rubio’s visit coincides with the United States sending a number of warships to the waters off Venezuela, supposedly to stop drug trafficking.
President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that 11 people were killed in an explosion when the US Navy hit a suspected drug trafficking ship arriving from Venezuela in international seas.
Neither the boat’s origin nor the identity of those on board can be independently verified by AFP.
“We are engaged in a shared fight against terrorism and drug trafficking,” Reimberg said.
Located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest producers of cocaine, Ecuador is the departure point for 70 percent of the world’s cocaine, nearly half of which goes to the United States, according to official data.
Gabriela Sommerfeld, Ecuador’s foreign minister, said Monday that Washington “is a possibility” of establishing a security presence in Ecuador.
The Drug Enforcement Administration maintained a significant presence in the nation, and the United States maintained a military facility in the port of Manta in the Pacific for many years.
Rafael Correa, a Marxist president at the time, declined to extend the lease, which led to the base’s closure in 2009.
