Rubio Seeks $45 Million More for Ecuador as US Adds 21st Latin American Cartel to Terror List

Since U.S. Southern Command's first strike on a suspected drug-smuggling vessel on September 2, 2025, Operation Southern Spear has carried out 67 strikes, according to the Pentagon. The latest came September 9, when Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere killed three people aboard a boat in the Eastern Pacific, the Department of War said in a post on X, citing "confirmed intelligence" of the vessel's involvement in narco-trafficking.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrapped up a three-nation tour of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru on September 10, meeting with three right-leaning presidents who have all embraced the Trump administration's harder line on cartels. Rubio met Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella on September 8, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa on September 9, and Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori on September 10, according to the State Department and reporting from the Associated Press.

$45 Million Ask, New Terror Designation

Standing alongside Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Roberto Kury, Rubio said he will ask Congress to approve $45 million in additional security funding for Ecuador, on top of a separate $10 million initiative targeting illegal mining, according to a State Department transcript. "I'm going to ask the United States Congress for 45 additional million dollars, to continue contributing towards this effort of dismantling these terrorist groups and finishing with them once and for all," Rubio said.

During the same stop, Rubio announced the U.S. has designated the Ecuador-based gang Los Tiguerones a foreign terrorist organization, the 21st Latin American or Caribbean criminal group to receive that label, according to the Associated Press. Mexico has the most groups on the list, with eight, including the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the two largest fentanyl traffickers into the United States.

The foreign terrorist organization label was historically reserved for groups like ISIS or al-Qaida that use violence for political ends, not profit-driven crime syndicates, the Associated Press noted. The Trump administration's strategy, rolled out in February 2025, has used the designations to justify the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and more than 200 deaths from strikes on alleged narco-trafficking boats, according to the AP's count.

Peru Joins the Coalition

Fujimori, who took office July 28 on a tough-on-crime platform, told Rubio her country is joining what officials call the "Shield of the Americas" coalition. "We are extremely happy, and we are thankful for Peru to be part now of the Shield of the Americas," she said, according to NPR's Michele Kelemen, who traveled with Rubio.

Colombia's de la Espriella, who has U.S. citizenship and ties to Miami, pledged to resume fumigating coca crops and target drug labs. Rubio said Colombia has not asked for U.S. troops on the ground, only equipment, intelligence and training, according to the Associated Press.

The Pushback

Benjamin Gedan, a former Obama administration Latin America adviser now at the Stimson Center, told NPR that Rubio's regional focus is "long overdue" but too narrow. "It's really narrow, and it's focused almost entirely on engaging with militaries in the region to fight drug traffickers," Gedan said. He argued the region needs more U.S. investment to compete with Chinese-funded infrastructure, pointing to a multibillion-dollar Chinese-built port in Peru and a metro project in Bogotá. Ecuador's Noboa, a Trump ally on security, traveled to China this year seeking better market access for shrimp exports, a reminder that regional alignment with Washington on cartels doesn't mean full economic alignment.

The Associated Press also flagged a consistency problem in Trump's approach. Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was sentenced to 45 years for drug trafficking and accused at trial of protecting the Sinaloa Cartel, yet Trump pardoned him last year and he has since returned to Honduras. That pardon sits uneasily next to an administration message built around zero tolerance for cartel-linked officials.

Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson has defended the strike campaign in blunt terms, telling Fox News Digital that the message to traffickers "remains unchanged: if you traffic deadly illicit narcotics and threaten the American people, we will hunt you down, we will find you, and we will kill you."

What happens next depends on Congress. Rubio's $45 million request for Ecuador and the $10 million anti-mining initiative both require lawmaker approval, and neither has been voted on. Whether Peru's entry into the Shield of the Americas coalition means U.S. boat strikes or joint operations expand into Peruvian waters, as they already have on Ecuadorian soil, remains an open question the State Department has not addressed.