Ecuador will receive senior military officers and anti-drug agents from the United States to fight organized crime

The United States will send the head of the Southern Command, General Laura RichardsonAnd senior anti-narcotics and diplomatic officials are working with Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa’s government to examine how to combat organized crime, the North American State Department reported Thursday.

Ecuador “suffers atrocious levels of violence and terrorism at the hands of “Narcocriminal elements who target innocent citizens”“More than 100 prison guards have been taken hostage,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

“We reaffirm our commitment to maintain that Very close collaboration With Ecuador, involved in the fight against criminal organizations,” he added.

US President Joe Biden’s government has been condemning the terror spread in the country for several days. About twenty drug trafficking gangs And he has shown himself willing to cooperate but without going into details. More details are provided in a State Department statement on “Narcotic Criminal Violence in Ecuador.”

“We will work with President Noboa to deepen our law enforcement cooperation through security assistance programs,” he said.

To speed up cooperation, Washington goes a step further and sends senior officials “In the next week”.

Their goal: “To explore with their Ecuadorian counterparts how we can work together more effectively to combat the threat posed by transnational criminal organizations.”

Officers include General Laura Richardson, Todd Robinson, under secretary of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, and Kevin Sullivan, senior official in the State Department’s Latin America office.

They will also travel American police “To assist Ecuador in criminal investigations,” the statement added.

The United States will also increase “intelligence sharing, cooperation to counter malicious cyber activity, and assistance in implementing prison reform.”

It also plans to use “other available tools” to hold accountable individuals and entities that participate in criminal activities and undermine the rule of law.

Organized crime has escalated violence in Ecuador this week, with several prison riots, kidnappings, explosions, assaults and an armed attack on a television station in the city of Guayaquil.

Faced with these episodes, the government has announced “Internal Armed Conflict”

And these gangs are considered terrorist groups and military targets.

The surge in violence comes as the new Noboa government prepares to implement plans to regain control of Ecuador’s prisons, many of which are internally dominated by these groups.

This violence has also spilled over into the streets to create Ecuador One of the most violent countries in the worldwith 45 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023.

(With information from AFP and EFE)