Andean Group - April 2026

With the war in the Middle East capturing most of the world’s attention, US air strikes in Ecuador on 3 March largely slipped under the radar. But the operation, carried out in coordination with President Daniel Noboa’s government, may mark an inflection point in the battle against organised crime in Ecuador. The US support came ahead of an escalation of Noboa’s security crackdown in mid-March, which saw night-time curfews imposed in four provinces as the military carried out security operations that Noboa said involved further US support.

The US Southern Command (Southcom) shared a brief video on social media showing troops boarding helicopters and taking off. In a short statement, it said that “Ecuadorian and US military forces launched operations against Designated Terrorist Organizations in Ecuador” and added that “together, we are taking decisive action to confront narco-terrorists who have long inflicted terror, violence, and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere”. Ecuador’s defence ministry did not provide any detail, saying that doing so could jeopardise future operations.

Ecuador’s media subsequently reported that the joint operation had involved air strikes on a camp belonging to Comandos de la Frontera, a Colombian guerrilla group which operates on both sides of the shared border. The bombing, which reportedly took place in Ecuador’s Sucumbíos province, came during a period of rising tensions between the two countries after President Noboa accused the Colombian government of allowing armed groups to proliferate in the border region (see below).

The military operation with the US seems to have been permitted under a Status of Forces Agreement (Sofa) which came into force in February 2024, which allows the US military to operate in Ecuador for “cooperative activities to address shared security challenges”. This has enabled the US to station air force personnel in Manabí province since December 2025 – a deployment which was announced after Noboa failed to win public support for a constitutional amendment to allow the return of foreign military bases in a referendum the previous month [SSR-26-01].

The door now seems to be open to ongoing US military involvement in Noboa’s security efforts. The bombing of the Comandos de la Frontera camp came the day after Noboa announced on 2 March that the US would be involved in “joint security operations” that month which would focus on “narco-terrorism and illegal mining”. On the same day he met with Southcom’s commander, General Francis Donovan, and the head of US Special Operations Command South, Rear Admiral Mark Schafer, to discuss “technical and institutional coordination” and “joint initiatives to strengthen controls, the exchange of information, and operational coordination in airports and port terminals,” according to an Ecuadorean presidential statement.

In its own statement on the meeting, Southcom said that “Ecuador is one of the United States’ strongest partners in disrupting and dismantling Designated Terrorist Organizations in the region”. Since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025, Noboa has sought to establish Ecuador as Washington’s main partner in South America, following Trump’s lead on issues ranging from security to trade and diplomacy. Noboa will seek to build on that relationship as a key player in the US-led Shield of the Americas initiative that was launched in February (see p.3). The Shield of the Americas has a decidedly conservative tilt and does not include the left-wing governments of three regional security lynchpins: Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil.

The ‘next phase’ of Noboa’s anti-crime strategy

This coordination with the US came as Noboa declared on 2 March that “the next phase of the battle and of this war against organised crime begins now”. As part of a major escalation of the security crackdown, he announced night-time curfews between the hours of 11pm and 5am from 15-30 March in four western provinces – Guayas, El Oro, Los Ríos, and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas. Interior Minister John Reimberg warned citizens that they faced the risk of prison sentences if they breached the curfew without good reason, saying that “we are at war, we’re taking decisive steps against drug trafficking and criminal groups… You need to stay at home”.

Some 65,000 soldiers and police offices were mobilised in the four provinces under curfew. Defence Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo said on 16 March that artillery would be used against “military targets” such as illegal runways, gang headquarters, criminal mining operations, and weapons caches.

The interior ministry announced on 22 March that 897 people had been arrested during the first week that the curfews were in force. Most of those arrested were reportedly detained for violating the curfew. However, several notable arrests have taken place, such as that of Bryan ‘La Perris’ Macías, who allegedly coordinated contract killings and extortion activities for the Los Tiguerones gang and was arrested in Guayas’ Santa Lucía canton on 16 March. Macías was found dead in his cell in Guayaquil’s Penitenciaría del Litoral just three days later. Press reports gave asphyxiation as the cause of death, but at the time of writing it was unclear whether he was murdered or committed suicide.

In another high-profile arrest, a suspected criminal named by the authorities as Rubén Hernán Z.B., alias ‘Wiwi’ or ‘Teniente’, was captured in Guayaquil on 18 March. He is accused of leading a faction of the Los Choneros gang in the city.

Tensions rise with Colombia

Tensions between Ecuador and Colombia have escalated significantly since 21 January, when Noboa launched a trade war to try and pressure President Gustavo Petro’s government to take a harder stance against armed groups along the border. Claiming that the Petro administration was not responding to Ecuadorean concerns about crime in the border region, Noboa announced a 30% ‘security tax’ on Colombian imports which he said would remain in force until there is “concrete action” from Bogotá. Colombia responded in kind and also suspended the sale of electricity to Ecuador. In return, the Noboa administration hiked the rate it charges to transport Colombian oil through the Ecuadorean pipeline system.

The escalation of the security crackdown in Ecuador has cranked tension still higher, after an unexploded bomb, which the Colombian authorities say was dropped by the Ecuadorean air force, was found on Colombia’s side of the border. Petro announced the discovery on 16 March and linked Ecuador’s military activities to 27 “charred bodies” that he said had been found in Colombia. Colombia’s Defence Minister partially walked back Petro’s comments the following day, saying that 14 bodies had been discovered in Tumaco municipality, Nariño department, but that the victims were believed to have died in an accidental explosion at a cocaine laboratory, and that there was no evidence of an attack.

The commander of the Colombian air force, General Carlos Fernando Silva, speculated that as the bomb was found just metres inside Colombian territory, it could have bounced across the border after failing to detonate upon impact on the Ecuadorean side.

Deadliest cities

The deterioration in Ecuador’s security situation in recent years was underlined by the publication on 11 March of the annual list of the world’s 50 most violent cities, as measured by Mexican think tank Seguridad, Justicia y Paz according to their homicide rates. Of the ten most violent cities on the list, six were in Ecuador – Babahoyo (which ranked 2^nd in the world), Machala (4^th), Quevedo (5^th), ‘central Manabí [province]’ (7^th), Guayaquil (8^th), and Esmeraldas (10^th), while Santo Domingo ranked 49^th. The list was dominated by Mexico, which had 17 cities on the list, followed by Colombia (eight), Ecuador (seven), Brazil (six), and South Africa (six).

Leading Los Lobos suspect captured in Mexico

An alleged leading member of the Ecuadorean cartel Los Lobos, Ángel Esteban Aguilar Morales, alias ‘Lobo Menor’, was arrested in Mexico City on 18 March following a tip-off from the Colombian authorities. Aguilar is wanted in connection with the August 2023 assassination of Ecuadorean presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and is the stepson of Los Lobos’ alleged leader, Wilmer ‘Pipo’ Chavarría, who was arrested in Spain in November 2025 and whose extradition is being sought by the US.