Burning Papers in Quito: Ecuador Expels Cuba's Entire Diplomatic Mission

A man climbed to the roof of the Cuban Embassy in Quito on Wednesday and set a bag of documents on fire. The Associated Press witnessed it. Then Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa posted the video to social media with a two-word caption: "A paper barbecue."

Hours earlier, Ecuador's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had declared Cuban Ambassador Basilio Antonio Gutierrez and his entire diplomatic staff "persona non grata." They have 48 hours to leave the country. No explanation was provided - the Vienna Convention does not require one.

Cuba's Foreign Ministry called it an "unfriendly and unprecedented act." Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said on X that it was "no coincidence" that Ecuador expelled his country's diplomats on the same day the United States was intensifying pressure on Havana across the region, and one week before a summit of right-wing Latin American leaders in Miami that Noboa plans to attend.

The Cubans are not wrong about the timing. The expulsion came 24 hours after the United States and Ecuador announced the launch of joint military operations against organized crime groups inside Ecuadorian territory. U.S. Southern Command called it a "powerful example of the commitment of partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the scourge of narco-terrorism." Noboa called it the beginning of a new phase. Neither government disclosed locations, force levels, or scope.

The same day Noboa expelled Cuba's ambassador, he also canceled the duties of Ecuador's own ambassador to Cuba, Jose Maria Borja - also without explanation. The sequence matters: diplomatic recall, then expulsion, synchronized with the public announcement of US troops operating on Ecuadorian soil. This is sequenced. It is deliberate.

The broader context is not subtle. Since Trump's military operation deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Washington has moved to consolidate control over Latin America's political alignment. Cuba - which had relied on Venezuelan oil subsidies to stay afloat - is being squeezed from multiple directions. Trump has placed new restrictions on oil sales to Cuba and stated publicly that the Cuban government is "ready to fall."

Ecuador is now serving as the operational edge of that pressure campaign. Noboa's government has positioned itself as one of Washington's most willing partners in the region - it already raided the Mexican embassy in 2024 to arrest a political refugee inside, a move widely condemned as a violation of international law. It has trade conflicts with neighboring Colombia. Now it is expelling Cuban diplomats while hosting US special forces.

Andrea Endara, coordinator of Political Science and International Relations at Casa Grande University in Quito, put it plainly: Noboa "has aligned himself with the interests of the United States." The expulsion has "an ideological component."

Ecuador and Cuba have maintained bilateral relations since 1960. Those 66 years ended on a Wednesday with a bag of burning papers and a president's smirking caption.

Cuba's network across Latin America is under systematic pressure. Venezuela is gone. Nicaragua is isolated. Bolivia's left-leaning government faces US economic pressure. Now Ecuador - once a country where Cuban diplomats had operated freely for decades - has given them two days to disappear. The hemisphere is being reorganized. The Cuban diplomatic presence is being methodically dismantled, country by country, with Washington's hand visible at every step.

The fires on the embassy roof in Quito were small. What they represent is not.