Ecuador has been requesting foreign military support for months, saying that its fight against gangs is a \u201ctransnational war\u201d that requires the contribution of multiple countries. <\/p>\n
Noboa said that while his administration \u201cwould love to have\u201d US forces in Ecuador, he insisted that they would not be out patrolling the streets. Instead, they would play a supportive role in Ecuador\u2019s security operations. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe would like to cooperate with US forces, and I think there are many ways that we can do that, especially in monitoring illegal operations that move out of Ecuador, but the control of the operations will be in the hands of our military and our police,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The US has previously carried out operations in that area. From 1999 to 2009, it ran surveillance flights targeting drug routes in the eastern Pacific at the now-defunct Manta Air Base. <\/p>\n
He said the US had been waiting until the outcome of Sunday\u2019s election to resume talks. Noboa won the vote decisively against leftist lawyer Luisa Gonz\u00e1lez, having campaigned on a promise to restore security with a hardline approach and revitalize the economy. <\/p>\n
Noboa, who was born and educated in the United States, has been trying to boost cooperation with Washington on various issues \u2013 from trade to migration. On the latter issue, he says he wants to improve living conditions at home to incentivize Ecuadorians to remain in the country, instead of migrating to the US. <\/p>\n
Asked whether his relationship with US President Donald Trump is comparable to the one Trump has cultivated with El Salvador\u2019s strongman President Nayib Bukele \u2013 who has agreed to take in deported migrants from the US accused of violent crimes \u2013 Noboa said his situation is different. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy case is different than El Salvador\u2019s case. And we both respect each other. We both support each other, but at the same at the same time, different realities. And we need to view things according to each country and each country,\u201d he said, noting that he has invited both Trump and Bukele to his inauguration on May 24. <\/p>\n
Asked whether another meeting with US officials was on the horizon, he replied, \u201cYes, I think sooner (rather) than later.\u201d <\/p>\n
The national police says the start to the year has been the most violent in the country\u2019s history, with more than 2,500 homicides. Data from organized crime research center InSight Crime suggests Ecuador now has the highest homicide rate in Latin America, with nearly twice as many killings as Mexico. The surge has been fueled by drug trafficking routes, turf wars and alliances between local gangs and foreign cartels. <\/p>\n
In March, Noboa also announced a \u201cstrategic alliance\u201d to fight organized crime with Erik Prince, the founder of the controversial private defense contractor formerly known as Blackwater. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ecuador has been requesting foreign military support for months, saying that its fight against gangs is a \u201ctransnational war\u201d that requires the contribution of multiple countries. Noboa said that while his administration \u201cwould love to have\u201d US forces in Ecuador, he insisted that they would not be out patrolling the streets. Instead, they would play <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}