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The US State Department has designated the Ecuadorean gang Chone Killers a foreign terrorist organization.
Getting into it: The announcement was made Wednesday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who labeled Chone Killers both a foreign terrorist organization and a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist,” a move that makes it a federal crime to knowingly provide the group material support and blocks its property and interests within US jurisdiction. Chone Killers started as a faction of Los Choneros, Ecuador’s oldest gang and also a designated terrorist organization, before splintering off into its own group in 2020. With this designation, the Trump administration has now labeled 18 Latin American gangs and cartels terrorist organizations since February, a list that includes Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.
Rubio accused the gang of helping Mexican cartels move and export drugs to fund terrorism and other criminal activity, as well as carrying out attacks on civilians, police and government officials.
He framed the designation as part of a broader effort “to protect our hemisphere by keeping illicit drugs off our streets and disrupting the revenue streams funding violent narcoterrorists.” Ecuador’s government welcomed the move, with its Foreign Ministry thanking the US for its “firm support” of Noboa’s “all-out fight against criminal organizations.”
Noboa, a staunch Trump ally, has imposed curfews and deployed the military across several provinces in a US-backed crackdown, and declared the country under an “internal armed conflict” in early 2024.
This all comes as the terrorist designations have become a legal and policy cornerstone of the administration’s aggressive anti-narcotics campaign. Trump argues the US is in “armed conflict” with these gangs, a claim his administration has cited to justify using the military against suspected drug-trafficking boats.
