While the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was being decorated in Quito by Ecuador’s president for “helping to promote peace in the region”, 10 Ecuadorian fishers whose boat had been blown up by US forces were adrift in the eastern Pacific.
asserted
boat → decorate → Pacific
On 8 September, a day before Rubio arrived, a US patrol vessel intercepted the fishing boat Don Rufo in international waters near Ecuador.
asserted
vessel → arrive → Ecuador
“The gringos were all armed as if they were going to war,” said the boat’s captain, Mero Calderón, 50.
asserted
captain → arm → war
“I tried to show them our catch to prove that we were there working, but they wouldn’t listen,” he added.
asserted
he → try → catch
“They brought two huge bombs aboard, took us to their ship, handcuffed and blindfolded us, and blew our boat to pieces,” said Calderón, who along with five other fishers, was handed over to local authorities.
asserted
who → bring → authorities
But another 10 crew members were fishing farther out to sea in a smaller boat that was not equipped to make it back to shore.
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that → fish → shore
The Ecuadorian navy only rescued them on 10 September, when Rubio was already in Peru preparing to return to the US.
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Rubio → rescue → US
US Southern Command posted an edited 14-second video of the operation and said “intelligence confirmed” that the vessel was being used by a gang as a “floating refuelling station” for speedboats allegedly carrying drugs – which the fishers deny.
uncertain
fishers → post → which
It was one of eight operations involving Ecuadorian boats in just more than two weeks – the latest on 16 September – to follow the same pattern.
asserted
It → involve → pattern
Unlike the nearly 70 US airstrikes in the Pacific and Caribbean that have killed 234 people since last year, crews were removed before the vessels were sunk.
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vessels → kill → year
Also, rather than unilateral US attacks, the new wave of operations has the open support of Ecuador’s far-right president, Daniel Noboa, who is calling them “joint operations”.
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who → have → them
Donald Trump has compared the drug trafficking operations to the campaign against the Islamic state.
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Trump → compare → state
“Like ISIS, they should be killed, exiled or detained as enemy combatants without the possibility of release, which is what we’re doing,” Trump said on Tuesday.
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Trump → kill → Tuesday
Some analysts see the shift as an indication that the US’s military strategy against drug trafficking in Latin America has entered a new phase.
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strategy → see → phase
“Noboa has offered Ecuador as a ‘laboratory’ for the implementation of this new phase,” said Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
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Freeman → offer → Relations
Although Ecuador does not produce cocaine like neighbouring Colombia and Peru, over the past decade it has become a major trafficking hub because of its access to the Pacific, including the area where the attacks on boats have been taking place.
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attacks → produce → place
Noboa has responded with a controversial “iron-fist” approach to the gangs, issuing repeated states of emergency and expanding the role of the armed forces.
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Noboa → respond → forces
This crackdown however has done little to reduce violence, and instead has eroded human rights.
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crackdown → do → rights
The most notable example of human rights abuse came last year in the case of the “Guayaquil Four”, the forced disappearance of four Afro-Ecuadorian boys between the age of 11 and 15.
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example → come → 11
All four boys were found dead, there bodies charred and dismembered.
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boys → find → bodies
Despite pushback from voters, Noboa signed an agreement with the White House authorising joint operations and granting US military personnel involved in counter-narcotics operations immunity from criminal prosecution.
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Noboa → sign → prosecution
The operations have also extended to land, with US troops taking part in raids last Thursday.
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troops → extend → raids
“Noboa is interested in the optics of a very lethal crackdown and in making Ecuador a place where the Trump administration can refine those methods and show them off,” said Freeman, who has also reported on the boat attacks in Ecuador for the New Yorker magazine.
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who → make → magazine
Trump has pressured Latin American presidents to join an anti-drug cartel coalition he created called Shield of the Americas.
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he → pressure → Americas
With Peru and Colombia recently joining, the group now includes all but the few countries still governed by the left, such as Mexico and Brazil – where a far-right senator is a serious contender in October’s election.
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senator → join → election
So far, the coalition’s primary goal appears to have been increasing joint operations against alleged drug traffickers.
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goal → appear → traffickers
Adam Isacson, director for defence oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America, expects joint operations to expand across the region.
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operations → expect → region
Isacson stressed that though more people are being turned over to local authorities instead of killed, the US is “still doing the bad old stuff”.
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US → stress → stuff
On 19 September, four people were killed in the Caribbean.
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people → kill → Caribbean
As with the other airstrikes, the US has not disclosed their identities or any of the alleged evidence linking them to criminal activity.
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US → disclose → activity
During his trip to Ecuador, Rubio said the decision on what approach to take was “a strike-by-strike or operation-by-operation determination” that depended on the threat and location of the boat, but that the US would “still blow up ships if need be”.
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need → say → ships
Human rights organisations have described the airstrikes as extrajudicial killings, and a special rapporteur for the UN human rights council has concluded that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that they constitute “crimes against humanity”.
asserted
they → describe → humanity
Despite Trump’s claims, available data show they have had no impact on the volume of cocaine entering the country.
uncertain
they → show → country
Journalists and human rights groups have managed to identify some of the victims, who in many cases were innocent or, when suspected of involvement in criminal activity, poor people at the bottom of trafficking networks.
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who → manage → networks
In Ecuador, the local NGO Permanent Committee for the Defence of Human Rights estimates that more than 220 fishers have been subjected to “violent boardings, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture and the destruction of vessels” in this year’s US operations.
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fishers → estimate → operations
None of the fishers remains in custody and, while some are still facing prosecution, many have already been acquitted for lack of evidence.
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many → remain → evidence
“Fishers are losing their livelihoods when the US destroys the boats.
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US → lose → boats
Besides, if the US says the vessels were being used to refuel drug boats, why destroy the evidence?” said the committee’s lawyer, Fernando Bastías.
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lawyer → say → evidence
A US Southern Command spokesperson said it conducts operations “in compliance with US and international law” and that leaving boats “intact could permit their reuse by criminal networks”.
uncertain
leaving → say → networks
Although the US and Ecuador have celebrated the recent operations on social media, three cases from earlier this year remain unclaimed.
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cases → celebrate → media
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
