The United States Labels The best gangs in the equator as terrorists: NPR

Quito, Ecuador – The United States will designate two of the most powerful gangs in the Ecuador – Los Lobos and Los Choneros – as foreign terrorist organizations, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Thursday during a day visit to the South American country.

This decision allows Washington to freeze assets, target partners and share intelligence with Ecuador for what Rubio described as “potentially fatal” operations. He promised $ 13.5 million in security aid and $ 6 million in drone technology to support the equator’s fight against organized crime.

“These guys generally do not descend,” said Rubio, speaking of the two gangs, which he called “vicious animals”. The new designation “opens the opening” to share the intelligence that the equator can use against them.

Rubio met the president of the equator Daniel Noboa, a close ally of the American administration, in the capital, Quito. Noboa has made frequent trips to Washington, DC and Mar-A-Lago, including a meeting with President Trump. Re -elected earlier this year, Noboa declared a “war” on organized crime while violence in Ecuador jumped.

Initially congratulated for having seduced traffickers, Noboa’s efforts – including a security agreement with American private military entrepreneur Erik Prince – recently blocked. According to Ecuadorian government data, around 70% of world cocaine is now across the country, shipped from neighboring Colombia and Peru to the United States, Europe and Asia markets.

The sharp increase in the violence of the cartel fueled the migration of the equator, sending more equator to the American border. Noboa has put pressure on a stronger and European involvement in its repression and wants to hold a referendum to allow foreign military bases in equator for the first time since 2009. Rubio said that Washington would consider a base if it was invited.

Rubio’s judgment in Quito comes after high -level meetings in Mexico the day before, where he warned more American military action against drug traffickers. Earlier this week, the Trump administration struck a Venezuelan boat which would have transported drugs, killing 11 people who, according to the United States, were members of Tren from Aragua, a Venezuelan gang also designated as terrorist organization earlier this year.

The Venezuelan Minister of the Interior Diosdado Cabello criticized the strike. “If they led the attack, 11 people were killed without trial. Can it even be legal?” He said on state television. “Even if it involved drugs, their own laws prohibit this.”

But Rubio defended the strike, saying to journalists in Mexico: “If you are on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl led in the United States, you are an immediate threat. The president has the power to eliminate imminent threats to the United States”

During the trip, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Juan Ramón de la Fuente, underlined the cooperation of his country with Washington, but stressed that she had to respect sovereignty. He has repeatedly cited the principles of “self-determination, non-intervention and peaceful resolution of controversies” when it was asked for American pressure on Venezuela. Despite the differences, the two parties described the talks as productive, the Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum joining the discussions.

While the new terrorist designations widen the American options in Ecuador, they could complicate questions for civilians. Immigration lawyers say that this can help some asylum seekers prove that they are victims of terrorism, but others who have paid gang extortion money could be penalized for “material support” to terrorist groups.

For the moment, the United States reports a more difficult regional approach despite issues on the legality of the strike against the alleged Venezuelan drug boat. Rubio described Noboa as a “voluntary partner” in the drug war and said that the Trump administration would not hesitate to continue strikes against the groups it considers as narco-terrorists.