Western Hemisphere

US Opens Ecuador Front: American Forces Now Operating in South America as Iran War Rages

Image: US Opens Ecuador Front: American Forces Now Operating in Sou

While the US military wages open war against Iran, it quietly opened a second active front. On March 3, US and Ecuadorian forces launched joint operations against designated terrorist organizations inside Ecuador. This is not a support mission. American boots are on South American ground.

US Southern Command confirmed the operation Wednesday. General Francis Donovan, head of SOUTHCOM, stated that "Ecuadorian and US military forces launched operations against Designated Terrorist Organizations in Ecuador" on March 3. He framed it as narco-terrorism. The Pentagon released footage: helicopters lifting off, surveillance imagery of figures boarding aircraft.

"Together, we are taking decisive action to confront narco-terrorists who have long inflicted terror, violence and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere." - General Donovan

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the operation at Wednesday's briefing. US government sources told multiple news outlets the current operation is logistics and intelligence support for Ecuadorian troops - but that description matches what was said about Venezuela in December, weeks before US forces abducted President Nicolas Maduro.

Pattern of Escalation

This is not Trump's first military action in Latin America. It is his most recent - and the region is accumulating a body count.

At least 44 aerial strikes have been carried out against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since Trump took office. The result: 150 known deaths. No charges have been made public against any of the deceased. Families from Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago say some victims were fishermen and informal workers, not traffickers.

Two survivors from an October submarine attack were recovered and quickly repatriated. They were subsequently released without charge.

Venezuela, Then Ecuador

Trump's Latin America campaign has followed a clear escalation ladder. In December, US forces struck a dock in Venezuela linked to Tren de Aragua. On January 3, they went further - US forces entered Venezuelan territory and seized President Nicolas Maduro. He is now imprisoned in a US federal facility, facing drug trafficking and weapons charges.

The UN condemned both Venezuela operations as violations of international law. Experts called them "part of a broader and deeply troubling pattern of unprovoked military aggression." Washington did not pause.

General Donovan visited Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and his defense ministers in Quito on March 2 - one day before the joint operations began. The sequence is consistent with how the Venezuela operations unfolded.

Ecuador's Slide Toward War

Ecuador was once known as an "island of peace" in Latin America. COVID-era economic collapse and its geography - sandwiched between Colombia and Peru, the world's two largest cocaine producers - changed that. Homicides spiked. Criminal networks dug in. Noboa, a right-wing president elected in 2023 on an iron-fist platform, has pushed mano dura policies since day one.

Now he has Trump's military as a force multiplier.

Ecuador has also been escalating pressure on Colombia, which Noboa and Trump both accuse of failing to control cocaine trafficking. On March 1, Quito raised tariffs on Colombian imports to 50 percent. A trade war running alongside a shooting war, in the same hemisphere, at the same time.

Two Wars, One Administration

The scope of what the Trump administration is doing simultaneously is without modern precedent. The US is currently conducting active military operations in Iran, Lebanon, and Ecuador. It has sunk an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean. It is bombing Tehran. It is operating joint forces in South America.

Senate Republicans blocked war powers limits on the Iran campaign Wednesday. No such resolution exists for Ecuador. No congressional authorization has been sought. The White House classifies the Latin America operations as law enforcement actions - a legal framing the United Nations has directly contested.

The scale of operations keeps expanding. The legal basis keeps narrowing. The body count keeps rising.