US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the Trump administration is designating two of Ecuador’s most feared gangs, Los Lobos and Los Choneros, as foreign terrorist organisations. The move follows last week’s US strike against Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua cartel, which killed 11 people and rattled leaders across the region.
“These vicious animals, these terrorists,” Rubio said at a press conference in Ecuador’s capital. “This time we’re not just going to hunt for drug dealers in the little fast boats and say ‘let’s try to arrest them.’ No, the president has said he wants to wage war on these groups because they’ve been waging war on us for 30 years and no one has responded.”
Rubio said the designation gives the US “all sorts of options” — from seizing assets in American banks to intelligence sharing with Ecuadorian authorities, and, if needed, military force. “That includes the ability to kill them as well as take action against their properties,” he added.
Ecuador’s president Daniel Noboa welcomed the move, thanking the US for efforts to “actually eliminate any terrorist threat.”
The announcement comes as Ecuador reels from record levels of gang violence tied to cocaine trafficking. Groups like Los Choneros and Los Lobos have turned prisons into battlegrounds and ports into drug highways, fueling a surge of murders, extortion and political instability.
Rubio defended the controversial US strike on Tren de Aragua in the Caribbean a day earlier, saying the vessel posed an “immediate threat” to the United States and that Trump chose to “blow it up” rather than risk a prolonged operation.
The strike has drawn cautious responses in the region, with Mexico stressing “nonintervention” and sovereignty. But Rubio brushed off concerns, insisting US actions are directed against adversarial states like Venezuela, not “friendly governments.”
The UN’s latest drug report highlights Ecuador as a new hotspot in the global cocaine trade, thanks to weak laws, dollarised economy and gangs ready to work with Mexican and Balkan cartels.
By designating Los Lobos and Los Choneros as terrorist groups, Washington is signalling it may go further than bank sanctions — it may be preparing for a war.
– Ends
With inputs from Associated Press