President Daniel Noboa of violence-riddled Ecuador said Tuesday he had asked US President Donald Trump at a “positive” meeting over the weekend for military help to fight against drug gangs.
Noboa, a key Latin American ally of the United States, is seeking to boost his flagging support ahead of a decisive round of presidential elections on April 13.
The 37-year-old has campaigned on his crackdown on cartels blamed for turning what was once one of the region’s most peaceful countries into one of its most violent.
In February, he said he would invite “special forces” from unnamed allied countries to help.
The United States, Noboa told Radio Sucesos after meeting Trump in Florida on Saturday, “will help patrol not only for drug trafficking but also on issues like illegal fishing that greatly affects us.”
Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo, in a televised interview, said Tuesday that following an agreement with the founder of US security contractor Blackwater, “a group of them is arriving in the country.”
He said the first “working sessions” will focus on “consultations, training, but their presence here will not necessarily be limited to these two topics.”
Noboa added Ecuador was “open” to hosting foreign military bases.
The United States had one in the country — at the fishing port of Manta — until 2009, after a constitutional prohibition entered into effect that Noboa now wants overturned.
Noboa said Trump had agreed to “review” Ecuador’s request to have domestic gangs with international ties added to Washington’s list of “foreign terrorist organizations,” as has been done for Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua.
AFP
