- Ecuador's Interior Minister John Reimberg confirmed this week, for the first time, that recent boat boardings grew out of joint investigations with U.S. agencies — while still stopping short of saying Ecuador had any role in the decision to open fire, according to comments he gave Teleamazonas .
- Three Ecuadorian boats — Los Tres Hermanos, Conquista II, and OM2 — were sunk in a single week, bringing 2026's total to six Ecuadorian vessels destroyed; 28 of roughly 37 fishermen involved have reached port in Manta.
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit to Ecuador is scheduled for September 8-10 — it has not yet taken place — and comes as 18 countries have picked Ecuador to lead a regional "Pacific Group" against drug cartels.
Three Ecuadorian fishing boats were boarded and sunk by U.S. forces within a single week at the start of September, pushing the year's total to six vessels destroyed even as Quito keeps insisting the alliance with Washington is worth defending. The tension between those two facts is the story: a government that wants the intelligence-sharing, the funding, and the regional leadership role that come with aligning against drug cartels, but that is visibly uncomfortable owning the body count piling up off its own coast.
For the first time this week, Ecuador's Interior Minister John Reimberg publicly acknowledged that the recent boardings grew out of investigations conducted jointly with U.S. agencies. He stopped short, however, of saying Ecuador had any hand in the decision to open fire. That distinction, drawn carefully and repeated often, is central to understanding how Quito is trying to have this alliance both ways.
Three Boats, One Stretch of Coastline
The pattern accelerated fast. U.S. forces intercepted and sank the boat Los Tres Hermanos on August 28, roughly 40 nautical miles off Manta. Five days later, on September 2, Marines and sailors launched from the amphibious ship USS San Antonio (LPD-17) boarded Conquista II about 244 nautical miles offshore and destroyed it. A third vessel, OM2, was hit the following day.
U.S. Southern Command described the operation in near-identical language each time: forces "intercepted, boarded, searched and cleared" the targeted boat "without incident" before sinking it, framing each vessel as a floating fuel depot supporting Los Choneros, the gang the U.S. designated a foreign terrorist organization last year. Ecuadorian officials have not challenged that account, but they have also carefully avoided describing themselves as the ones pulling the trigger — a distinction Reimberg made explicit this week when he said the sinkings were "the product of an investigation" carried out through international cooperation.
Families Wait, and Count, in Manta
Roughly 37 fishermen were aboard Conquista II and OM2 combined, according to Telesur's tally, though Ecuador's Navy has given a slightly different breakdown in its own statements, complicating efforts to pin down an exact figure. Twenty-eight of them reached the port of Manta on September 4 aboard a coast guard vessel, while relatives who had spent days outside the port captain's office demanding information finally got some answers. The remaining crew members were still making their way back separately.
One fisherman's wife had recorded video of the OM2 boarding mid-call with her family; the footage captured armed personnel giving orders in Spanish, including "hands up, don't move." A human rights lawyer has said he plans to file a habeas corpus petition to help locate and repatriate any crew members whose whereabouts remain unconfirmed.
The Fiorella Case Still Hangs Over Manta
The anxiety in Manta didn't start this month. Eight of the ten crew members of the fishing boat Fiorella have been missing since it vanished on January 20, roughly 270 miles off Manta, after sending its last satellite signal. Investigations by The New York Times and The Washington Post have since tied a business jet, registered as Fénix 701 and operated by a Virginia-based firm with reported ties to the CIA, to the aircraft's movements toward the Fiorella's position in the days before it disappeared. Neither the Pentagon nor the U.S. Coast Guard has claimed involvement, and the CIA has neither confirmed nor denied a role — leaving the case unresolved seven months later.
A Campaign Marks Its First Year
The timing lands just after the wider bombing campaign, formally named Southern Spear, passed its first anniversary on September 2. U.S. officials point to steep declines in detected drug trafficking as proof of concept: roughly a 65% drop in the western Caribbean, 60% in the eastern Caribbean, and close to 50% along Pacific smuggling routes over the past year. Independent trackers compiling the Pentagon's own strike announcements put the human cost at 227 people killed across at least 68 vessels since the campaign began, a count that runs higher than the "more than 200" figure SOUTHCOM itself has cited publicly. Legal experts have argued that a documented second strike on survivors clinging to wreckage from the very first attack, in September 2025, may amount to a war crime — an accusation the administration rejects, saying the follow-up strike was necessary to fully destroy the drug cargo.
Rubio's Visit Still to Come
None of this has slowed Ecuador's push for a bigger regional role. The U.S. State Department confirmed Friday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru between September 8 and 10, with a stop in Quito to meet President Daniel Noboa on security cooperation and trade. The visit comes roughly a year after Rubio's previous trip to Ecuador in September 2025, and follows an announcement that 18 countries have selected Ecuador to lead the "Pacific Group" within the broader anti-cartel coalition — a role Noboa has said he wants to anchor by hosting the group's intelligence fusion center. Back in May, after a separate meeting in Washington with Vice President JD Vance, Noboa wrote on Instagram that "Ecuador and the United States fight enemies that recognize no borders," a line that captures how tightly his government has tied its security strategy to Washington's.
Rights Groups Aren't Convinced
Human Rights Watch has documented alleged abuses connected to the security partnership, including the arbitrary detention of farm workers near the Colombian border and drone strikes on fishing boats close to the Galápagos Islands. Ecuadorian voters already rejected letting the U.S. reopen a military base in the country, voting down a constitutional change in a November 2025 referendum by roughly 60%. Around the same time as the Vance meeting in May, Democratic members of Congress wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asking the Pentagon to pause joint operations in Ecuador pending a review of the human rights record. With Rubio's visit still ahead and new agreements likely on the table, Ecuador's government is showing no sign of stepping back from the alliance — even as it keeps working to draw a line between itself and the strikes that keep killing its own fishermen.
