At dawn along Ecuador’s Pacific coast, small fishing boats leave the ports of San Mateo and Jaramijo for tuna and swordfish, but those routine scenes mask a dangerous reality: fishermen here face pressure from both drug cartels onshore and lethal airstrikes offshore. Since last September, the U.S. military’s Operation Southern Spear has destroyed dozens of vessels and, officials say, killed more than 220 people in an intensified campaign against suspected drug traffickers in the eastern Pacific. Survivors and local rights groups say at least two fishing boats from Manabí province were struck in attacks that bear the hallmarks of U.S. strikes, though the U.S. has not claimed responsibility for those specific incidents.
On March 17, the 16-person crew of the Negra Francisca Duarte II, which had sailed from Manta, heard a drone overhead before a strike hit near the galley and set the vessel ablaze, survivor Simon Villacreses said. Some crew members jumped into the water or into smaller boats; when they reached what they thought was a nearby tuna vessel they were met instead by armed, English-speaking men in military-style uniforms. “They started pointing guns at us. They took us aboard, put hoods over our heads and tied our hands behind our backs,” Villacreses, 52, said. Survivors say they were later transferred at sea to a Salvadoran navy vessel, taken to El Salvador for medical care and then repatriated on commercial flights. A similar drone strike hit another boat, the Don Maca, nine days later, and at least eight crew from the Fiorella have been missing since January, witnesses told local human-rights groups.
Security analysts interviewed by Reuters — and former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials — said the strikes are likely attributable to U.S. forces given the Southern Command’s ongoing boat-strike campaign and the military footprint documented in videos released by the command. The U.S. Southern Command declined to comment for operational-security reasons. Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, did not respond to requests for comment, and Ecuador’s military has described drug-enforcement details as classified. El Salvador’s navy said in a March 23 Facebook post that it had rescued 16 shipwrecked Ecuadorians.
Onshore, two powerful Ecuadorian crime groups, Los Choneros and Los Lobos — both linked to Mexican cartels and designated last year by the U.S. as terrorist organizations — have turned small ports into cocaine-trafficking hubs and extort fishermen prized for their navigation. Locals say fishermen are often forced to pay “fees” of about $1,200 per trip — several times a normal month’s income — or be recruited to smuggle cocaine for as much as $40,000 a run. Many now fish at night, change routes or stop going out entirely; Villacreses says he has yet to return to sea.
U.S., Ecuadorian and Salvadoran authorities say maritime interdictions are critical and point to major seizures: the U.S. Coast Guard reported seizing 91,000 kg of cocaine and arresting 160 suspects through April, and a joint Coast Guard–Ecuadorian navy operation in March recovered 760 kg from an Ecuador-flagged tuna vessel. But drug experts warn that destroying small boats and targeting “go-fast” craft — small, high-speed vessels used to move drugs — will not stop trafficking if cartels can replace recruits drawn from impoverished coastal communities. “Blowing up these boats is not going to stop anything,” said a former DEA official, and analysts note that most large shipments still transit major commercial ports.
Original Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/given-up-fishing-us-airstrikes-cartel-extortion-threaten-ecuador-fishermen-11915506#publisher=newsstand
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Publish Date: 2026-08-16 00:00:00
