By Jonas Vilkas
On December 17, 2025, the U.S. announced that a “temporary deployment” of an unannounced number of Air Force personnel will be deployed to Eloy Alfaro Air Base in Ecuador. The U.S. embassy in Quito stated that the deployment of troops will “enhance the capacity of the Ecuadorian military forces to combat narco-terrorists, including strengthening intelligence gathering and anti-drug trafficking capabilities, and is designed to protect the US and Ecuador from the threats we share”.
The previous U.S. “Forward Operating Location” operations at the air base were terminated in 2009 under President Rafael Correa. In November 2025, a referendum in Ecuador proposing to allow foreign military bases into the country was rejected by a two-thirds margin. The current Ecuadorian president, Daniel Noboa, has positioned himself as an ally to Donald Trump. Throughout last year, Noboa laid the groundwork for the redeployment of U.S. troops to the country by invoking fears of “international narco-terrorism”. An expansion of Eloy Alfaro Air Base was built with the intention of serving as a base of operations for the U.S. military. Noboa announced a partnership in March 2025 with Erik Prince, founder of the private military contractor Blackwater, infamous for its responsibility in the Nisour Square massacre in Iraq where 17 civilians were killed and 20 were injured.
The deployment of Air Force troops to Ecuador signals that the Trump administration is continuing to ramp up “anti-drug trafficking” operations in Latin America, which have killed at least 161 people to date.4 Alongside the re-establishment of the Eloy Alfaro Forward Operating Location, the U.S. military has planned to reactivate its bases in Panama and Puerto Rico.5 The “narco-terrorism” narrative is central to the recent aggression against Venezuela, culminating in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro on January 3. The true intention behind the U.S. operations in Latin America is a race for power against competing imperialist powers Russia and China, as each tries to redivide Latin America.
