The United States designates criminal gangs Los Lobos and Los Choneros as terrorists in Ecuador

The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, announced this Thursday in Quito that his country designated the Ecuadorian criminal gangs Los Lobos and Los Choneros as terrorist groups, in line with the offensive that Washington is leading against organized crime in Latin America.

These are the two largest and most powerful criminal gangs in Ecuador, which the Government of President Daniel Noboa, with whom Rubio met in the Ecuadorian capital, already declared terrorists at the beginning of 2024 along with other groups causing an unprecedented escalation of violence in the Andean country.

“Today we are going to designate Los Lobos and Los Choneros as terrorist organizations,” Rubio announced during a press conference with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador, Gabriela Sommerfeld, after a meeting with Noboa at the Carondelet Palace, headquarters of the Ecuadorian Executive.

“They are narcoterrorists,” insisted Rubio, who recalled that in Ecuador these groups are not only dedicated to drug trafficking but also to illegal mining.

The highest representative of US diplomacy, who added that Washington is considering the designation of other Ecuadorian groups as terrorist organizationsstated that the new name that the United States grants from today to Los Lobos and Los Choneros will allow Donald Trump’s Government to tackle the networks that finance both groups through the banking system, something that he said has already been successfully implemented against Haitian gangs.

“Potentially lethal operations”

Rubio also highlighted that the new designation will allow bilateral intelligence sharing “that can be used in potentially lethal operations” by the “host country” against these two organizations, which Washington considers to have transnational links with the Mexican cartels of Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación.

The Secretary of State also announced that Washington will provide funds worth 13.5 million dollars to help the Government of Ecuador in the fight against organized crime.

He also pointed out that another item of six million dollars has been approved for the acquisition of next-generation drones for the Ecuadorian Naval Force.

Rubio also highlighted the importance of the security forces of both countries carrying out joint training against criminal gangs to “face a threat that we have in common.”

Previous sanctions against Los Choneros

Previously, the Trump Administration had already applied economic sanctions to Los Choneros and specifically to their leader, drug trafficker José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias Fito, who was recently extradited from Ecuador to face drug trafficking charges in the United States.

Fito became the first Ecuadorian extradited to the United States since the Andean country once again allowed its citizens to be handed over to US Justice, after approving a reform of the Constitution through a referendum.

This drug trafficker had become one of the major objectives of the Noboa Administration, after he became the most wanted criminal in the country, by escaping from prison for the second time when he was serving a sentence imposed in 2011 for drug trafficking, organized crime and murder.

New treaty for extraditions on the table

Precisely, Sommerfeld anticipated that the meeting also discussed modernizing the extradition treaty between the United States and Ecuador, which is 150 years old and barely had a modification 90 years ago.

In that sense, Rubio himself assured that both parties agree on the need to modernize the extradition agreement.

The Government of Ecuador, which has intensified the fight against organized crime and maintains that the country remains in a situation of “internal armed conflict” against criminal gangs, has in turn aligned itself with Washington when declaring the transnational gang Tren de Aragua (TDA) and the Cartel of the Suns as terrorist organizations.

Rubio’s trip comes at a time marked by the recent attack on a boat, which left Venezuela and which according to Washington was transporting a shipment of drugs, carried out by the large military contingent that the United States has deployed in the southern Caribbean.

This operation has further increased tension with Caracas, which accuses Washington of trying to force the overthrow of the Government of Nicolás Maduro.