American Green Berets of the 7th Special Forces Group are operating in Ecuador alongside local armed forces against drug cartels. According to Juan Jaramillo, the governor of Esmeraldas Province on the border with Colombia, this has been taking place for some time. Among other things, U.S. personnel have conducted reconnaissance together with the Ecuadorian Navy and are focusing especially on the areas of San Lorenzo and Eloy Alfaro, which are heavily affected by violence linked to drug trafficking, but also by illegal extraction of resources.
Already in March, both sides carried out a joint strike against the Comandos de la Frontera, a dissident group of the Colombian FARC involved in drug trafficking, in that South American country. There were conflicting reports about whether the United States contributed only intelligence results or also carried out an airstrike. In the past week, the Ecuadorian government issued an order allowing U.S. military personnel to stay in the country for up to 180 days without visas and other entry rules.
Classic Deployment for Green Berets
On August 21, Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo confirmed the arrival of two U.S. warships and three Black Hawk helicopters in the port of Manta. This was intended to triple patrolling capabilities against boats used by drug traffickers. The ships could be the dock landing ship USS San Antonio and the destroyer USS Gridley, which had this month transited the Panama Canal into the Pacific near Ecuador.
Cooperation with allied forces in counter-insurgency warfare is a classic task of the U.S. Special Forces, known by their beret as the Green Berets. The 7th Special Forces Group, based at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, specializes in operations in Latin America. Ecuador is a member of the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition (A3C), launched on March 7, also known as Shield of the Americas (SotA). In this coalition the United States works with 17 Latin American partners following last year’s launch of Operation Southern Spear, with the aim of further combating transnational crime, particularly against drug cartels.
