Can you find Ecuador on the map of South America? It’s that very small country on the northwestern (Pacific) coast, sandwiched between Colombia and Peru — two of the region’s principal producers of cocaine.

Ecuador is plagued by a variety of problems: slow economic growth, rampant organized crime, disruptions in oil production, an energy crisis, climate-related events, and political uncertainty. [“The World Bank in Ecuador,” worldbank.org.]

As such, it has been at the mercy of its neighbors’ drug cartels, who use Ecuador’s transport and export system to ship bricks of cocaine hidden in boxes of bananas and other goods to the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere. And where there is an active drug trade, there is inevitably violence.

Authorities have been doing their best to clean up the criminal gangs in areas such as Guayaquil, where the problem is especially acute. There are frequent raids on known gangs, but the situation is so ingrained in the local society that the people have simply become inured to the crime — though there has been an increase in migration from Ecuador of those who are able to leave. [David Culver, Barbara Arvanitidis, Abel Alvarado and Rachel Clarke, CNN, March 5, 2025.]

One undercover officer told CNN: “We could use the US’s help. We need resources: vehicles, armor, personnel.” [Id.]

And Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa — who is due to stand for reelection next month — has indicated that he wants foreign military assistance, which many believe would include U.S. troops. The U.S. has long been a major trade partner with Ecuador, as well as a leading investor. About 20% of the bananas imported into the U.S. come from Ecuador, along with shrimp, tuna, cacao and cut flowers. And we have a long history of supplying financial aid to their country.

In addition, Noboa has taken steps to maintain a friendly relationship with Donald Trump. They both enjoy personal wealth; Noboa has mirrored Trump’s tariffs on imports from Mexico; he has announced his support of Trump’s intention to categorize drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations; and he is in a position to accept more deportees from the U.S. as a result of Trump’s mass eviction of undocumented immigrants.

But . . .

And remember that, in politics, there is always a “but.”

. . . but is all of that enough to convince Donald Trump to offer help, when he is in the process of brutally slashing U.S. foreign aid, including to war-torn Ukraine? Does he care enough about bananas and shrimp, or the loss to U.S. businesses that currently import them? Does he really give a crap about the welfare of a country — along with Lesotho — that he probably believes no one has ever heard of?

If President Noboa is counting on years of friendly relations to sway Donald Trump, I fear he may be in for a rude awakening. Because to Trump, loyalty always has been, still is, and always will be a one-way street.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
3/6/25