Latin America and Drug Policy

CBS reports that U.S. special operations commandos have recently accompanied Ecuadorian troops in a coastal raid on a compound believed to be a staging hub for high‑speed boats tied to Los Choneros, an Ecuadorian group the U.S. has designated both a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorists. The joint mission, called Operation Lanza Marina, is part of a broader U.S.-Ecuador campaign launched in early March 2026 against "designated terrorist organizations" and maritime trafficking networks. Two U.S. officials say American forces served in an advisory and accompanying role under authorities such as 10 U.S.C. §127e, even as the Trump administration has loosened constraints on airstrikes and raids outside declared war zones. Since September 2025, U.S. unilateral strikes on suspected drug‑smuggling boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific have hit at least 47 vessels and killed about 163 people, raising quiet concerns among some observers about transparency and oversight. The article underscores how counter‑narcotics, counter‑terrorism, and security‑cooperation programs are blurring into forward U.S. special-operations deployments in Latin America, with limited public acknowledgment from the Pentagon or U.S. Southern Command.