U.S. Forces Return to Ecuador for Counter-Narcotics Mission

The United States announced on Wednesday the deployment of Air Force personnel to Ecuador’s Manta air base for a regional counter-narcotics mission, part of Washington’s broader campaign to curb Latin American drug trafficking. The deployment marks the first U.S. military presence in Manta since 2009.

The move was made despite Ecuadorian voters overwhelmingly rejecting President Daniel Noboa’s bid in November to lift the country’s ban on foreign military bases. According to the U.S. embassy in Quito, the deployment is a “temporary operation with the Ecuadorian Air Force in Manta.”

Noboa, a close ally of President Donald Trump, said the joint operation will reduce cartel-related violence across the country.

“This operation will enable the identification and dismantling of drug trafficking routes, and the submission of those who believed they could take over the country,” he said in a post on X.

The deployment comes amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela over allegations of drug trafficking.

U.S. naval and air forces have been building up off Latin American coasts since August. Recent operations targeted vessels allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, resulting in at least 95 deaths so far. Trump has also increased economic pressure on Venezuela by announcing a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers transporting Venezuelan crude.

The announcement follows a recent report from the U.S. Special Operations in Central, South America and the Caribbean, that they assisted the 4th Division of the Ecuadorian Army in an operation in Esmeraldas, a coastal province in northwestern Ecuador, earlier this December. The joint mission led to the seizure of 1.4 tons of cocaine, valued at roughly $98 million.