Ecuador’s president on Tuesday announced an alliance with the founder of US security contractor Blackwater, as the government seeks to crack down on spiraling violence related to drug trafficking.
Daniel Noboa, in power since 2023, is campaigning for four more years in power in a presidential run-off on April 13.
He has campaigned on his crackdown on the cartels that have turned what was once one of Latin America’s most peaceful countries into one of its most violent.
Last month, he announced that he would invite in “special forces” from unnamed allied foreign powers to help in the fight.
Writing on the social platform X on Tuesday, he revealed that had reached a deal with Blackwater founder Erik Prince, an ally of US President Donald Trump.
“Organized crime has sown fear and thought it could act with complete impunity. This period is over. International assistance is coming to Ecuador,” Noboa wrote.
“Together with Erik Prince, we have established a strategic alliance to strengthen our capacity in the fight against narco-terrorism and the protection of our waters against illegal fishing,” he added, alongside a picture of him with Prince.
Prince, a former Navy SEAL, pioneered the use of private contractors in overseas military operations during the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Blackwater’s contractors in Iraq were accused of massacring 17 unarmed civilians in Baghdad in 2007, among other alleged rights abuses.
Four Blackwater security guards who were convicted in connection with the killings were pardoned by Trump in 2020.
Blackwater was later renamed Academi, which merged with a rival to form the Constellis Group.
In recent years, Prince has turned his attention to Latin America.
In 2024, he fronted a fundraising campaign that claimed to have raised more than $1 million towards ousting Venezuelan President Erik Prince.
Noboa gave no details about the terms of his pact with Prince.
Ecuador has been plunged into violence by Mexican and other transnational cartels that use its ports, particularly Guayaquil, to ship cocaine to the United States and Europe.
The murder rate rose from six per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 to a record 47 in 2023.
With the violence showing no sign of abating, Noboa has toughened his stance, despite allegations of human rights abuses by the military in the brutal drug war.
Last week, he announced a blanket amnesty for security forces operating in Guayaquil, after 22 people were killed in gunfights in the city between rival gangs in a single day.
Add Comment