American and Ecuadorian forces carried out “lethal kinetic strikes” against drug traffickers in Ecuador near the Colombian border, U.S. Southern Command announced on Friday.
The operation targeted a training camp used by the Comandos de la Frontera, Ecuador’s defense ministry said, and was located in the northeast of the country. It was the apparent first strike involving U.S. forces in South America since the attack on Venezuela in January and the first confirmed action by U.S. troops since its anti-cartel mission was announced.
“At the request of Ecuador, the Department of War executed targeted action to advance our shared objective of dismantling narco-terrorist networks,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on X, using the Trump administration’s name for the Department of Defense.
SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis Donovan meanwhile said in a statement that the operation on Friday targeted “Designated Terrorist Organizations.”
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Although SOUTHCOM announced the start of joint operations against such groups earlier this week, it was not clear what specific actions had been taken. Video shared by SOUTHCOM of the operation on March 6 shows troops boarding a helicopter before aerial footage shows helicopters flying over the camp, located along a river. The footage then shows the camp being rocked by an explosion, a blast captured on camera from the air and the ground. Video taken on the ground shows the building completely destroyed.
Ecuador said that the camp had a capacity for 50 people, but neither Ecuador nor the United States said if anyone was killed or captured in the strikes. Comandos de la Frontera, or Border Command, is a drug trafficking group made up of former members of the Revolutionary Armed forces of Colombia or FARC. According to Insight Crime, the group is mainly based in southern Colombia, with some operations inside Ecuador. Last fall the United States designated two Ecuadorian drug groups, Los Lobos and Los Choneros, as foreign terrorist organizations.
U.S. forces returned to the country in December. The U.S. previously described the deployment as a “short-term mission.” It is not clear how many troops are deployed as part of that, nor how many are taking part in the operations against drug traffickers in Ecuador.
The joint mission comes as the Trump administration is working to expand efforts against cartels in Latin America. Since September American forces have conducted dozens of airstrikes on small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing roughly 150 people accused of being drug smugglers. In January, the U.S. attacked Venezuela, capturing President Nicolás Maduro to extradite him to face charges tied to drug trafficking.
Today, during a summit with Latin American leaders, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation committing to aid in the fight against cartels. During the signing, he told leaders “[W]e have to use our military. You have to use your military.” According to Politico, Trump called the new proclamation a “commitment to using lethal military force” against cartels, and asked Latin American leaders to “just tell us where they are.”
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