Ecuador

Ecuador: Yasuní defenders face persecution

Amnesty International called on Ecuadorian authorities to drop all legal and financial penalties against activists behind the 2023 Yasuní Referendum, warning that the looming fines are part of a broader crackdown on civic space and dissent in the country. The Referendum resulted in an overwhelming majority of citizens voting to end oil extraction within Yasuní National Park, in the Ecuadorian Amazon. This result was celebrated across the world and hailed as one of Latin America's most important victories in the fight against climate change. However, since the vote, oil drilling has continued uninterrupted. Amnesty is pressing President Daniel Noboa to restore full legal protections for NGOs and respect the mandate of the Referendum, calling it a non-negotiable test of democratic integrity. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Colombia authorizes joint US strikes

Colombia formally joined the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition (A3C), a US-led regional initiative under the rubric of the so-called "Shield of the Americas." US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that new far-right President Abelardo de la Espriella had authorized joint "counter-terrorism" operations, a move that opens the door to US-led strikes on Colombian territory, which Hegseth said has already been discussed. De la Espriella’s granting of permission to US troops to operate within Colombia is likely unconstitutional—the transit and operation of foreign troops on Colombian soil requires Congressional approval. The agreement was formalized in Panama, where Hegseth spent two days meeting with the A3C's 19 partner members, deepening ties, and rallying opposition to the International Criminal Court, which he accused of launching a "lawless power grab" by potentially investigating US strikes in the region, a step it has not yet taken. (Map: PCL)

UAE joins multinational Amazon crackdown

Five South American countries announced completion of a two-week joint law enforcement operation targeting environmental crimes across the Amazon rainforest. The campaign, dubbed Operation Green Shield 2026, resulted in over 800 arrests and the seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars in timber, minerals and livestock. The campaign was coordinated by the International Initiative of Law Enforcement for Climate (I2LEC), a project led by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) launched jointly with the UN Office on Drugs & Crime (UNODC) to help countries share intelligence and resources against environmental crimes. (Photo: WAM)

Rights abuses seen in US-Ecuador joint operations

Human Rights Watch released a report detailing four attacks on Ecuadorian persons, properties and vessels that they attribute to an intensified counter-narcotics campaign led by the US with the partnership of the Ecuadorian government. The first attack took place in March on the farming community of San Martín, Sucumbíos province, and was confirmed by the US government as a partnered military operation. The remaining three incidents took place at sea, off Ecuador’s Pacific coast. They are the January disappearance of the Fiorella, an Ecuadorian fishing vessel, and March drone attacks on two other fishing vessels, La Negra Francisco Duarte II and the Don Maca. The US has denied responsibility in these maritime strikes. (Image: Nicolas Raymond via Flickr)

US pushes ‘Donroe Doctrine’ at Cuzco defense summit

Representatives from over 30 countries gathered in the Peruvian city of Cuzco for the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas, where top Pentagon official Elbridge Colby used the occasion to defend the "Donroe Doctrine." As at other regional security summits, including the "Shield of the Americas" conference held in Florida in March, Trump officials cast drug trafficking and irregular migration as threats to US security, urged regional governments to increase military spending, and called for deeper security collaboration with Washington. An increasing number of the right-wing governments in attendance have embraced closer military ties with the United States through joint strikes and new military bases—even as militarized policies fail to curb organized crime and violence in countries like Ecuador, a key testing ground for the administration's renewed war on "narcoterrorism." (Photo: Martin St-Amant via Wikimedia Commons)

Identifying victims of the US boat strikes

Nearly 200 people have been killed since the US started bombing boats supposedly believed to be carrying drugs in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific last September—and the figure keeps rising. The strikes have caused an international outcry over the violation of international human rights law, but there has been little information about the victims themselves. A months-long cross-border investigation coordinated by the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) has now managed to piece together the details of over 20 of the young men believed to have been killed, plus three survivors. They were overwhelmingly poor fishermen and small boat transporters without criminal records. They came from economically vulnerable coastal communities, including in Colombia, Venezuela, Saint Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago and Ecuador. The investigation identified each of the boats targeted and noted that their home governments have failed so far to investigate the attacks. (US Coast Guard via Wikimedia Commons)

Trump admin has transferred 17,400 to ‘third countries’

The Trump administration has built a network of third-country transfer agreements with more than 30 governments and used them to remove over 17,400 people, in some cases in defiance of federal court orders and after individuals had won their release through habeas corpus, according to data released by Human Rights First and Refugees International. The organizations report that the administration in April re-arrested and forcibly transferred to third countries people who had previously been granted withholding of removal by US immigration judges and had prevailed on habeas petitions challenging the legality of their detention. The report documents an attempted transfer of individuals to Libya last year in violation of a court order then in effect. (Photo: Venezuelan deportees in Honduras. Credit: ICE via Wikimedia Commons)

Ecuador: crackdown on indigenous, environmental groups

Ecuador's financial crimes agency froze the bank accounts of several indigenous and environmental groups in an apparent effort to silence protests, Human Rights Watch said. The government's Unidad de Análisis Financiero y Económico (UAFE) cited secret intelligence reports to justify the freezing of the funds. Among the groups affected is the indigenous organization Alianza Ceibo, representing the Waorani, Siekopai, A'i Cofán and Siona peoples, which has defended the economic, social, cultural and collective rights of these peoples for 10 years. Also targeted are groups protesting the decision to approve a mining project in the southern province of Azuay which threatens the fragile ecosystem in the region. (Photo: Alianza Ceibo)

Ecuador voters reject foreign military bases

In a decisive referendum, Ecuadoran citizens overwhelmingly rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed foreign military bases on the country's soil. Early counts show nearly two-thirds of ballots cast opposed the measure. President Daniel Noboa introduced the referendum, arguing that foreign cooperation was essential to combat the ongoing surge in violence related to drug-trafficking. The rejection represents a significant setback for Noboa and his broader security agenda, revealing public scepticism of solutions involving foreign military forces. (Photo: Martín Vasco via Wikimedia Commons)

Popular protests turn deadly in Ecuador

Widespread protests in Ecuador, sparked by cuts to fuel subsidies, reached a boiling point, as an indigenous land defender was killed by the armed forces, a government aid convoy was reportedly attacked by protesters, and 12 soldiers went missing. Meanwhile, the government continued to advance its plan to rewrite the constitution—an initiative that has further intensified public anger. Undeterred, the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE), which initiated the nationwide strike, announced that it would extend the action. (Photo: CONAIE via Peoples Dispatch)

US-Ecuador security pact amid deepening crisis

At least 17 people were killed in an armed attack on a bar in El Empalme, a small town north of Ecuador's port city of Guayaquil—days before US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Neom visited the country and signed a deal to fight organized crime and illegal migration. The deal includes training for Ecuadoran security forces in the US and collaboration on border security. Once one of South America’s safest countries, Ecuador has registered a vertiginous uptick in violent crime in the past few years. In response, President Daniel Noboa has adopted a series of hardline security policies that have raised concern over human rights abuses. The policies range from the repeated declaration of states of emergency, the construction of El Salvador-style prisons, and a "strategic alliance" with private US military contractor Erik Prince. Noboa has also replicated some of US President Donald Trump's deportation tactics, returning more than 600 Colombian prisoners to their country in late July with no official notice. (Photo: Presidencia Ecuador via Peoples Dispatch)

Israel, UAE to assist Ecuador drug war

Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa says he is seeking assistance from Israel and the United Arab Emirates to combat the drug cartels that are terrorizing the South American country. The hardline rightist who won re-election last month said Israel and the UAE have agreed to provide intelligence aid "to help" fight the narco gangs. A day after Noboa's comments, Ecuadoran authorities announced that 11 soldiers were killed while carrying out an operation to combat illegal mining in a region near the border with Colombia. The Prosecutor General's office said the troops were attacked by the Comandos de la Frontera, a "dissident" faction of Colombia's FARC guerillas that controls cross-border drug trafficking and illegal gold-mining operations in the eastern province of Orellana. (Photo: Presidencia de la República del Ecuador via WikimediaCommons)

CounterVortex

Tag: Ecuador