Ecuador
1 item across 1 edition
No. III · Friday, 3 July 2026
U.S. designates Ecuador's "Chone Killers" gang a foreign terrorist organization
What? The State Department designated Chone Killers — a splinter faction of the already-designated Los Choneros that has carried out assassinations of Ecuadorian officials and law-enforcement officers — as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist on July 1. The move, part of a broader Trump administration campaign against Latin American organized crime, was welcomed by Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa's government.
So what? The designation criminalizes material support to the group under U.S. law and will sharpen cargo and traveler vetting tied to Ecuadorian nodes in the broader Andean smuggling network; continued fragmentation of Ecuador's gang landscape bears watching for new trafficking corridors and alliances that could substitute for degraded groups.
Confirmed · Sources: U.S. Department of State · Al Jazeera (July 1–2, 2026)