U.S. Special Forces Have Been Secretly Fighting In Ecuador

An Ecuadorian official confirmed that US Green Berets were engaged in anti-cartel operations. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump formed a coalition, dubbed Shield of the Americas, that was aimed at combating cartels in Latin and South America.

A local official told AFP and UPI that US special forces have been conducting direct operations against suspected cartels in the Esmeraldas province. “We are with the 7th (Special Forces) Group of the US Army. We are working together in the fight against narcoterrorism,” Esmeraldas Provincial governor Juan Jaramillo said last week.

Ecuadorian Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo added that two US warships were operating in the region.

In March, President Donald Trump said that a dozen Latin American nations had enlisted in the Shield of the Americas coalition to fight cartels in the region. Ecuador is a member of the bloc.

That month, the US and Ecuador conducted joint military operations against alleged drug targets. “The operations are a powerful example of the commitment of partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the scourge of narco-terrorism,” U.S. Southern Command said following the raid.

However, The New York Times reported that the target of the operation was a dairy farm, not a drug lab. “The military strike appears to have destroyed a cattle and dairy farm, not a drug trafficking compound, according to interviews with the farm’s owner, four of its workers, human rights lawyers, and residents and leaders in San Martín,” the outlet explains.

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U.S. Green Berets are now operating inside Ecuador alongside local forces in missions targeting drug-trafficking groups, according to Ecuadorian officials.

The joint operations are taking place in Esmeraldas province near the Colombian border, with officials declining to… pic.twitter.com/49cITmx44Z

— NewsForce (@Newsforce) August 27, 2026

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The United States military said Monday it carried out a strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the Pacific Ocean, killing two people.

U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said in a post on X that the strike, which took place Sunday, targeted a vessel “operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific.”

“Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking,” it added.

“This operation is a clear and decisive reminder that SOUTHCOM is taking the fight directly to the cartels,” SOUTHCOM said.

Grainy black-and-white video footage accompanying the post showed a boat moving through the water before a large explosion. The military did not identify the style of boat but it appears to be a long semi-submersible vessel, sometimes called a “narco sub.”

Narco subs, which cannot go fully underwater, are popular among international drug traffickers as they can sometimes elude detection by law enforcement.

“We are committed to imposing total systemic friction on narco-terrorists — disrupting their operations, dismantling their leadership, and eliminating cartel terror across the region,” Gen. Francis L. Donovan said in a statement Monday.

The latest strike comes days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the U.S. would extend its offensive to land across multiple Latin American countries. The secretary said during a visit to Panama that Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow the U.S. to carry out joint military operations against criminal groups on their soil. Guatemala denied reaching such an agreement.

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