USA sends soldiers to Ecuador for the first time

US soldiers deployed in Ecuador

“Either to prison or to hell”

US soldiers are now deployed in Ecuador in the fight against drug cartels. They help with raids.

The USA have soldiers in active operations against drug cartels Ecuador sent. The American Southern Command reported this on X. It was a joint operation with the drug agency DEA and the Ecuadorian police. The Ecuador police confirmed the operation.

According to a report, 50 American soldiers were deployed in the nationwide raids. It was an operation against drug traffickers who are said to be connected to the Mexican cartel Jalisco New Generation. Three suspects were killed and dozens were arrested.

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Footage from Ecuador police shows soldiers with American flags on their sleeves. In cooperation with the Southern Command of the American armed forces, a man named “Charlie” who was said to be a drug lord was also killed.

“We said it was either go to prison or hell, and this one didn’t make it to prison,” wrote Ecuador’s Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo on a video on X. It showed three men lying on a blood-stained street next to a bullet-riddled truck.

The USA has been active in Central and South America for months and is training local police units Perushare intelligence with governments and drug authorities, send equipment to Guatemala and hunt down suspected drug runners in the Caribbean. According to the WSJ, the fact that soldiers are directly involved in raids is a novelty.

“What we are currently experiencing in Ecuador is incomparable to anything we saw even during the Cold War,” he said. “Should this model become established in the region, we will see U.S. troops on the ground in close proximity to, or even participating in, combat operations.”