U.S. Tags Ecuador Gang Chone Killers Terrorist — 18th Latin American Group Hit Since February
The U.S. State Department on Wednesday designated Ecuador’s notorious Chone Killers gang as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, the 18th Latin American criminal group to receive that classification since President Donald Trump escalated his hemisphere-wide campaign against organized crime after returning to office. The designation, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, freezes any assets the group holds under U.S. jurisdiction and criminalizes the provision of material support to the organization — a charge that carries a potential 20-year prison sentence.
Targeted for Assassinations and Drug Runs
Rubio announced the dual designation in Washington, accusing the Chone Killers of carrying out numerous attacks targeting civilians, law enforcement officers and government officials, including high-profile assassinations of public figures. The State Department alleged the gang serves as a critical transit hub for Mexican cartels moving cocaine and other drugs through Ecuador’s Pacific ports toward the United States. The group takes its name from the city of Chone in Manabí province, a region historically associated with organized crime networks that have grown increasingly sophisticated over the past decade.
“The Trump administration, in partnership with Ecuador and President Daniel Noboa, will continue to protect our hemisphere by keeping illicit drugs off our streets and disrupting the revenue streams funding violent narcotics traffickers,” Rubio said. The statement drew a direct line between the gang’s operations and what the administration characterizes as a national security emergency on the southern border.
Noboa Wins a Powerful Ally in Washington
The right-wing Ecuadorean president, a self-styled ally of Trump who has governed under a state of exception since January, welcomed the decision as a vindication of his militarized crackdown on organized crime. Noboa has deployed the armed forces into Ecuador’s prisons and city streets, confronting a wave of gang violence that killed dozens in early 2024 and shook public confidence in state institutions. His government has also sought to position Ecuador as a frontline U.S. partner in Latin America, a strategy that has won him backing from Washington but drawn criticism from human rights organizations who say his security policies have eroded civil liberties.
Ecuador’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying the designation reflected Washington’s “firm support” for Noboa’s “all-out fight against criminal organizations.” “This cooperation is fundamental to dismantling transnational mafias and guaranteeing the safety, stability and peace of all Ecuadorians,” the ministry said.
A Hemisphere-Wide Crackdown With No Clear Endpoint
The Chone Killers join 17 other Latin American gangs and cartels added to the U.S. terror list since February, when the administration first invoked the foreign terrorist organization label against several prominent groups. The designation feeds into a broader legal and policy framework the White House has used to justify lethal strikes against suspected drug-trafficking vessels operating in international waters off the Pacific coast — part of what the president has described as an “armed conflict” with cartel networks.
Since early September, U.S. Southern Command has attacked 66 vessels, killing at least 213 people, though the actual toll is believed to be higher. The most recent strike, on June 21, left two dead and six survivors whose status remained unclear. SOUTHCOM has not publicly identified the gang operating any of the vessels struck, nor provided evidence that drugs were aboard at the time of the attacks — a pattern that human rights groups say undermines the legal justification for the strikes.
The United Nations has condemned the naval operations as disproportionate and lacking a clear legal basis under international law. Critics both domestic and international have warned against the expanding use of military force for what are essentially law enforcement objectives, arguing that terror designations do not automatically confer lawful combatant status. Still, the administration shows no sign of reversing course, and Ecuador’s government — locked in a war it has struggled to win alone — has embraced the partnership without reservation. For Quito, the U.S. designation is not just a diplomatic victory. It is a strategic lifeline in a conflict that has stretched its security forces to the limit and exposed the fragility of a state still rebuilding after years of political instability.
