US sends Reaper drones to Colombia and Ecuador in widening anti-cartel campaign
Commanders are weighing a shift from strikes on smuggling boats to targets on land, the New York Times reports
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The Pentagon has moved MQ-9 Reaper drones to Colombia and Ecuador as part of an expanding campaign against drug trafficking in the region, the New York Times first reported on October 6. U.S. commanders are now planning to widen the campaign from strikes on boats to targets on land, according to the Times.
The redeployment pulls the drones from U.S. Africa Command, where they had been used against al-Shabaab in Somalia, according to Army Recognition. Ecuador's defense minister, Gian Carlo Loffredo, said on October 2 that two Reapers had already been handed over and were flying in Ecuadorian airspace, telling reporters: "Two were turned over to Ecuador for cooperation and are already operating in our skies." Colombian officials said over the summer that the country had agreed to receive three Reapers and was considering a fourth.
The plan to extend operations onto land is being developed by General Francis L. Donovan, who leads U.S. Southern Command, according to the Times, as cited by yournews.com. The U.S. has already carried out repeated lethal strikes on vessels it says are smuggling narcotics, and the Times reports that Colombia and Ecuador have each agreed to joint counternarcotics operations with U.S. forces on their territory. Since late August, U.S. forces have also targeted what the military calls floating refueling stations off Ecuador's coast, removing crews before destroying the boats, according to The Hill.
The deployment marks a concrete escalation in a theater that has drawn far less attention than the Pentagon's Iran strike planning, which has stalled repeatedly since early October after Trump rejected five operation proposals. There is no sign of a similar check here, which raises the chance this campaign moves from surveillance to strikes faster than the Middle East track has. It also follows Trump's recent remarks crediting his endorsement for the outcome of Colombia's election, adding a political edge to a military presence that is already growing in the region.