USA: Anti-drug chief evaluates with Noboa support to combat ‘narcos’ in Ecuador

The head of the anti-narcotics office of the White HouseRahul Gupta, concluded a three-day visit to Ecuador with an eminently private agenda except for his meeting with the president, Daniel Noboawhich took place this Friday in Guayaquil.

Gupta came accompanied by the United States ambassador to Ecuador, Michael Fitzpatrick, while Noboa received him in the Guayas Governorate with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Gabriela Sommerfeld, and of the Interior and Government, Mónica Palencia, as well as with the Secretary of Communication from the Presidency, Roberto Izurieta.

The meeting was held with the purpose of strengthening cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking and combating violence, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry said through social networks.

Gupta’s visit took place within the “internal armed conflict” declared by Noboa at the beginning of January against organized crime, with which he began to consider criminal gangs that operate in the country, mainly dedicated to terrorist groups, as terrorist groups. drug trafficking.

Weeks ago, other senior officials and authorities of the United States also passed through Ecuador, such as Joe Biden’s presidential advisor for the Americas, Christopher Dodd, the head of the Southern Command, General Laura Richardson, and the undersecretary of State for the Office of Anti-Narcotics Affairs. and Law Enforcement, Todd D. Robinson.

Gupta explained that his goal was to better understand the work of the Ecuadorian government and determine in which areas the United States can provide additional assistance.

In that conversation, he anticipated that he would seek to learn more about the innovative process of drug destruction that is practiced in Ecuador using the ‘encapsulation’ technique, as well as visit the port of Guayaquil, used by mafias to send large quantities of drugs to North America. and Europe and evaluate with Noboa the results of the state of emergency.

Since Noboa declared the “war” internal to organized crime, the United States Government is one of the countries that has most decisively promoted cooperation in security matters that it had already been working with Ecuador in past years.

The result of this are the two bilateral treaties that Noboa promulgated on Thursday to allow the entry of US support in various forms, including the arrival of military personnel for training and training of Ecuador’s law enforcement forces.

In the field of security, USA has taken several measures in recent months to help Ecuadorian authorities, such as technical assistance to the Attorney General’s Office and the announcement of an increase in personnel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Ecuador to support the Police.

Earlier this month, the United States also sanctioned the Ecuadorian criminal gang Los Choneros and its leader, José Adolfo Macías Villamar (‘Fito’), whose escape from a Guayaquil prison in January triggered a wave of violence that included the live takeover of a television channel.

Surrounded by Colombia and Peru, the two main cocaine producers in the world, Ecuador has become a transit route for drugs that reach North America and Europe, to the point of becoming the third country in which the most drugs are seized, only surpassed by Colombia and the United States, with more than 200 tons annually in the last three years.

Violence derived from drug trafficking has made Ecuador one of the most violent countries in the world, with 45 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023.