LatinNews Daily - 30 April 2018

Ecuador: On 25 April, Ecuador’s interior minister, César Navas, and the US ambassador to Ecuador, Todd Chapman, signed a bilateral agreement that will allow the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to work together with the Ecuadorean authorities’ anti-drug trafficking efforts. The agreement plans to see greater strategic bilateral cooperation in the fight against arms, drug, and human-trafficking in Ecuador, as well as black market activities and money laundering. Included in the agreement is the creation of a new Transnational Criminal Investigative Unit (TCIU) through which the US and Ecuadorean governments will share information on anti-drug-trafficking investigations, operations, and events. “We’re here to confirm our commitment to fight against our common enemy which is transnational criminal organisations that curb countries’ development”, Chapman said about the agreement. Meanwhile Navas said that he believes that it is necessary for the two countries to work together to end these violent and illegal activities, each bringing their own technological and strategic capacities and experiences to the table. “If a country believes it can solve it alone, it’s wrong”, Navas said in allusion to transnational crime. The current insecurity situation on the Ecuador-Colombia border, where dissident groups from the Fuerza Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) guerrillas have recently kidnapped and murdered Ecuadorean nationals, unprecedented incidents in Ecuador, appear to have driven Ecuador to seek US assistance to combat transnational drug trafficking for the first time since such cooperation was terminated ten years ago by Ecuador’s former president, Rafael Correa (2007-2017). Ecuador intends to sign similar security cooperation agreements with other countries like Mexico, Spain, and the United Kingdom in the coming days.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 756 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial