Imagine that the newsroom of your local television station was invaded by armed, hooded mercenaries. Their community would be in shock, onlookers would panic, and the authorities would take whatever measures were necessary to re-establish security.
This is exactly what happened in Ecuador last week. After President Daniel Noboa announced his intention to create a new maximum security prison for criminals, Adolfo Fito Macías escaped from prison, bandits broke into the headquarters of TC Televisión and Noboa declared a state of emergency.
Cooperation agreements with the United States do not propose installing a foreign base, but the armed forces could ‘borrow’ facilities
Things don’t look good. As I write this opinion column, the news highlights that the prosecutor investigating the attackers at TC Televisión has been brutally murdered, we know that four policemen have been kidnapped, two killed, dozens of prisoners have escaped from their cells and Ecuadorians have taken refuge in their homes, while Ecuadorian soldiers patrol the streets of Guayaquil.
This is a terrifying moment for the Ecuadorian people. I traveled to Guayaquil and Quito last February and I knew that the nation had to face many challenges. But the destabilizing influence of the Venezuelan drug regime, combined with the soft-on-crime policies of the Mexican president,
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, like Colombian President Gustavo Petro, has empowered drug cartels to make strategic advances in Ecuador.
What should be the role of the US in the crisis facing Ecuador? First, we must support President Noboa and his administration. If their efforts to establish security fail, history will unfortunately tell us that significant areas of Ecuador will fall under the control of drug traffickers. It is a disaster for Ecuadorians, for our region.
and also for many Ecuadorian-Americans living in the US, it would also mean more drugs and illegal migrants arriving and crossing our southern border. This is something every American would like to prevent.
United States military, personnel and contractors will be temporarily in Ecuador if the bilateral agreement is approved, what can they do within the national territory?
The US Congress passed the bipartisan Ecuador Act in December 2022, which authorized a comprehensive diplomatic strategy to strengthen our bilateral relationship on trade and security issues. But laws only work if they are followed. Unfortunately, the Biden administration does not pay attention to our region, even to countries that are capable and reliable partners. That vacuum, on the part of the Biden administration, creates vulnerabilities that adversaries like Venezuela, China and drug cartels are exploiting.
To improve the situation, we should consider working with Ecuador to update the crimes that are eligible for extradition to the US. As history points out, drug lords – for years – feared North American prisons more than they feared them. Latin America. The current extradition treaty between the US and Ecuador is outdated to meet these difficult times and must be updated. Finally, the US must abandon any attempt to appease international actors who aid and abet Ecuadorian narco-terrorists and organized crime groups, specifically the Venezuelan dictatorship.
In short, President Nobo and the Ecuadorian people need all the help they can get, and the US would be remiss not to support them. If we don’t act quickly, we could lose a key friend and ally in our own hemisphere. (OR)
Source: Eluniverso
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
