Ecuador Gave Marco Rubio a Medal as US Boat Strikes Keep Hitting Its Fishermen
ECUADOR · FOREIGN POLICY
Key Facts
- —The visit Marco Rubio visited Ecuador on 9 and 10 September.
- —The award President Daniel Noboa decorated him with the Gran Cruz de la Orden Nacional al Mérito.
- —The statement Rubio confirmed maritime strikes on vessels will continue, calling them part of bilateral agreements.
- —The count A national rights committee says 143 Ecuadorian fishermen have been affected and at least nine vessels destroyed.
- —The catch Those are the committee’s figures, not the government’s. No official Ecuadorian toll has been published.
- —The reaction Ecuadorian legislators publicly rejected the decoration the following day.
The American secretary of state said the operations form part of bilateral agreements. Ecuadorian human rights groups put a number on what that has cost fishermen.
Ecuador gave the American secretary of state a top civilian decoration this week, while US boat strikes continued off its coast. Legislators in Quito rejected the award the next day.
Marco Rubio visited Ecuador on 9 and 10 September. Daniel Noboa decorated him with the Gran Cruz de la Orden Nacional al Mérito and praised his capacity to resolve problems.
The dispute underneath is about boat strikes. American forces have been striking vessels suspected of drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific since October 2025.
What Rubio Said
He described the maritime operations as part of bilateral agreements. He said Washington operates in accordance with its laws in its territorial waters.
He confirmed the boat strikes will continue. He attributed the sinking of vessels to narcotrafficking rather than to American action.
That last formulation is the contested one. It holds that boats sink because of what they carry rather than because of what hits them.
No Ecuadorian official publicly contradicted it during the visit. The contradiction came from elsewhere.
The Number the Government Has Not Given
Ecuador’s Permanent Committee for the Defence of Human Rights put a figure on the cost. It says 143 Ecuadorian fishermen have been affected and at least nine vessels destroyed in or near territorial waters.
Those are the committee’s figures. The Ecuadorian government has not published its own count, and no fatality figure could be confirmed from a primary Ecuadorian outlet.
That gap is the important part. A state that decorates a foreign official over a policy has usually counted the policy’s effects on its own citizens.
The committee is a long-established Ecuadorian organisation rather than a foreign one. Its numbers have not been publicly disputed by the government.
The Political Reaction
Protests came from the Frente Popular, the rights committee and other social organisations. They were directed at the decoration rather than at the visit itself.
Ecuadorian legislators rejected the award publicly on 10 September. Prensa Latina reported the rejection.
Decorating a foreign official is a presidential prerogative and the assembly cannot undo it. The rejection is a statement rather than an act.
It still matters for what it signals. Noboa’s security alignment with Washington is his signature policy, and it is now being contested on the specific ground of fishermen.
Why Ecuador Signed Up
Noboa came to office promising to break the gangs. He has sought American support for that openly and repeatedly.
That includes a referendum on allowing foreign military bases, which Ecuador banned by constitution in 2008. The alignment is a deliberate policy rather than an accident of circumstance.
Against that background a medal for Rubio is consistent. So is the domestic backlash, because the cost of the alignment falls on a specific coastal constituency.
Ecuadorian artisanal fishermen are numerous, poor and organised. They are not a group any president can write off quietly.
The Wider Campaign
The boat strikes are not an Ecuador-specific programme. American forces have conducted about 75 strikes on suspected drug vessels since September 2025, killing roughly 230 people.
Operations extended into the eastern Pacific from 21 October 2025. Mexico’s president objected publicly to how they were being conducted after Mexican search-and-rescue crews recovered a survivor.
Ecuador is the country whose fishing fleet operates most directly in the affected waters. Artisanal fishing boats and trafficking boats look similar from the air.
That is the whole problem with the policy at the operational level. Nobody disputes that some of the vessels carry cocaine, and nobody has published how the rest are identified.
Ecuador’s military chief has separately described the sunk boats as having operated as filling stations at sea. That is a description of the trafficking logistics rather than a defence of targeting.
More: Ecuador news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the boat strikes?
American military strikes on vessels suspected of drug trafficking, conducted in the Caribbean and, since October 2025, the eastern Pacific.
How many Ecuadorians are affected?
Ecuador’s Permanent Committee for the Defence of Human Rights says 143 fishermen have been affected and at least nine vessels destroyed. The government has published no figure.
What decoration did Rubio receive?
The Gran Cruz de la Orden Nacional al Mérito, awarded by President Daniel Noboa on 9 September 2026.
Can Ecuador’s assembly reverse the award?
No. Decorating a foreign official is a presidential prerogative. The legislators’ rejection is a political statement.
Sources: NODAL, Infobae, Prensa Latina.
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