Ecuador trades Cuban embassy for American troops and bombs

Ecuador is in crisis, with a higher murder rate than Haiti, a stagnant economy, and rampant poverty. What is the government’s response? Expelling the Cuban embassy and inviting American troops with open arms!

On 6 March, staff at the Cuban embassy in Quito were given 48 hours to leave the country. The state gave no explanation for the move, but it came two days after the US Southern Command (the same body which invaded Venezuela), launched a military operation in Ecuador to “combat the scourge of narco-terrorism.”

These two events are not a coincidence. Right-wing reactionary President of Ecuador Daniel Noboa has been one of the leaders most welcoming to American imperialism. Ecuador has gone from being one of the safest countries in Latin America, to one of the most dangerous since the pandemic. Noboa wants an El Salvador-style crackdown on gangs, and he wants the Americans to help. Declaring the Cuban Ambassador persona non grata, closing down the embassy, and further isolating the Cuban Revolution is a tokenistic chip to the Americans. The only reason Noboa didn’t kick out all Cuban doctors is because Lenin Moreno already did so in 2019.

The cocaine trade is at the heart of Ecuador’s violence. Its economy was pummeled by COVID and never recovered. The fastest growing export in recent years has been bananas, but that’s only because drugs are smuggled with the fruit, which goes to every corner of the world.

Ecuador doesn’t produce drugs on a significant scale, but it has become a centre of the international drug trade due to its deep sea ports, failing economy, banana industry, and army of unemployed youth. 70 percent of the world’s cocaine (grown in Colombia and Peru) flows through Ecuador, with rival gangs fighting for control. One Ecuadorian man, who began smuggling when he was 14, told the BBC: “The Albanian mafia would call me and say: ‘We want to send 500kg of drugs.’ If you don’t accept, they kill you.”

Demand for cocaine is only growing, especially in Europe. The drug is shipped out in hundreds of tonnes, and searching every shipment of bananas is impossible. This is what makes the Ecuadorian-American mission even more useless. So far, the ‘military operation’, headed by the US Southern Command has been vague, unplanned, and aimless. On 6 March, the US used helicopters, aircraft, boats, and drones to bomb a small camp in the jungle, with nothing to show for it except for some craters.

The Ecuadorian state has hinted at what’s to come, with Noboa saying they are “launching a new phase against narco-terrorism and illegal mining,” adding: “In the month of March, we will conduct joint operations with our regional allies, including the United States.”

As decades of failed drug-war policies have shown, no amount of militarised warfare will ever clear out drug violence, if the root of the problem remains. But this operation has little or nothing to do with drugs.

The real target

Just this past November, Noboa gave then-US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristy Noem a horseback tour of former US military bases in the coastal cities of Manta and Salinas, with the plan to reopen them and fill them with US soldiers and equipment.

Unfortunately for Noboa, the 2008 constitution passed by the left-wing government of Rafel Correa explicitly bans any and all foreign military bases on Ecuadorian soil. The state put forward a referendum to change this, as is required by law, and was defeated by 60 percent.

As we said at the time,

“None of this will stop the oligarchy’s president. A few days after the defeat in the referendum, Noboa travelled to the US to discuss with his masters how he can continue with the same subservient policies that do nothing but harm the Ecuadorian people.”

We now know what the ‘new’ plan is. This language of fighting drugs is a cover for Yankee imperialism. Last year, the US designated two Ecuadorian gangs as ‘terrorist groups’, with Marco Rubio saying the move brings “all sorts of options” of military intervention.

The aptly named ‘Americas Counter Cartel Conference’ – held on 5 March and attended by 16 of the Latin American countries closest to the US – shows this tactic in its crudest form. Pete Hegseth, speaking at this meeting, told heads of state they must aggressively attack cartels, and that “America is prepared to take on these threats and go on the offense alone if necessary.” Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said “Cartels that operate in this hemisphere are the ISIS and al-Qaida of this hemisphere and must be treated just as ruthlessly.”

The ‘Shield of the Americas’ summit, which met on 7 March, was more of the same, with Kristi Noem telling the 12 invited nations: “Our objectives are going to be to destroy the cartels, to go after these narco-terrorists that are destroying our people, killing our children and our grandchildren. We’re also going to keep our adversaries at bay.”

But none of this is about stopping drugs. Noboa’s family, owners of Noboa Trading, have been caught smuggling hundreds of kilograms of cocaine. No one faced any charges from that seizure, but the reporter behind the story had to flee the country due to death threats from Noboa’s party. The Noboa family controls the entire chain of the banana export business, from planting and harvesting to transportation and private ports.

The real target of America in the hemisphere is, as we’ve previously written, Chinese economic expansion. Ecuador is one of the Latin American countries most closely tied to China, with exports from the former to the latter increasing a hundredfold in the last 20 years, reaching $5 billion in 2024. The US aims to economically and politically dominate what it sees as its own backyard, and increasing its violent military presence is a key part of this.

In Peru, the United States is pushing the state to invest $1.5 billion to expand a naval base – to be used by the Americans – a mere 80 kilometers from China’s new megaport in Chancay. Dislodging China from countries heavily dependent on its economy is not easy, but military expansion is the strongest weapon the US has, since it can’t compete with Chinese industry.

A bad trade

This is the current gameplan of the US: strengthen American imperialism with the excuse of fighting drug trafficking, block Chinese economic expansion, and isolate Cuba. This has been done to a greater or lesser extent in countries all over the continent.

The Ecuadorian ruling class can try to shoot and bomb their way out of the drug crisis all they want, but Ecuador’s problems have deep social and economic roots not solvable under capitalism. Increasing crime and the economic crisis in Ecuador have forced the closure of 11 hospitals and 145 primary health centers. Between 2021 and 2025, Ecuador’s health budget was cut by nearly 40 percent. Almost 200,000 don’t have access to basic healthcare. The mass poverty and despair of the country will only feed the fire of narco-crime, as people look to survive any way they can. Instead of addressing this, Ecuador is expelling Cuban emissaries and launching costly military operations doomed to fail.

The Ecuadorian working class has already decisively rejected the presence of foreign military bases, both in the 2008 constitution and the 2025 referendum, showing the whole democratic process to be a sham. The state will always find a way to get what it wants. Real power comes from mobilisations on the streets. Movements like the general strikes in the 2000s, 2022, and 2025, are exactly what’s needed to not only topple the reactionary Noboa government, but to kick out American imperialism with it.