FBI Opens First Ecuador Office Amid Security Crisis

Two Weeks That Reshaped Ecuador Security

The speed of escalation has been extraordinary. On March 3, the United States and Ecuador conducted their first joint military operation on Latin American soil against narco-terrorist organizations, led by Southern Command. On March 5, Ecuador joined 19 nations in signing the Declaration of Doral against narcoterrorism. On March 7–8, President Daniel Noboa stood alongside Donald Trump at the Shield of Americas summit in Miami. And on March 11, the FBI opened its first permanent office in Quito, housed within the U.S. Embassy, with agents embedded alongside a newly created unit of Ecuador’s National Police. The Ecuador security architecture that existed two weeks ago has been fundamentally rewritten. This is part of The Rio Times’ comprehensive coverage of Latin American financial markets and economic developments.

The memorandum was signed at the Vice Presidency by Interior Minister John Reimberg, Vice President María José Pinto, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Lawrence Petroni, and FBI Regional Director Allen Pack. Pinto called the initiative essential for understanding criminal threats, while Reimberg emphasized that agents would begin working immediately. Ecuador joins Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Barbados among countries hosting permanent FBI offices in the Americas.

The Ecuador Security Crisis Behind the Partnership

The numbers explain the urgency. Ecuador recorded 9,216 intentional homicides in 2025 — a 30.5% increase over 2024 and a homicide rate of 50.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest in the country’s history. By the first half of the year alone, the daily average had reached 25.5 killings, and six Ecuadorian cities ranked among the world’s 50 most violent. The ACLED Conflict Watchlist 2026 estimated that 71% of Ecuador’s population — more than 12 million people — was exposed to organized-crime violence during 2025, the highest proportion recorded in Latin America.

The crisis traces to a rapid transformation: Ecuador evolved from a transit corridor into a major cocaine export platform, exploiting its Pacific ports and dollarized economy for money laundering. After the July 2025 extradition of Los Choneros leader José Adolfo Macías Villamar — alias “Fito” — to the United States, the group fragmented, triggering territorial wars with Los Lobos across the coastal provinces. The Ecuadorian Observatory of Organized Crime found that illegal gold mining had become the second most lucrative criminal market after narcotrafficking, with both feeding extortion networks that now constitute the primary mechanism of criminal territorial control.

From Gang Leaders to Criminal Economy

Reimberg signaled a strategic pivot in a radio interview Wednesday: 2025 was spent capturing leaders, which caused the gangs to fracture and fight among themselves. In 2026, the government will target the criminal economy itself. A major military offensive begins March 15 in Guayas, Los Ríos, and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas — three of the country’s most violent provinces — with an 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew lasting through March 30. The government deployed 10,000 troops in January under its “Ofensiva Total” and has committed over $180 million to security operations this year.

Critics Question the Strategy

Not everyone is convinced that deeper U.S. involvement will solve what analysts describe as a fundamentally institutional problem. The International Crisis Group warned in November that military operations have produced only fleeting success — violence drops during deployments but rebounds upon withdrawal. Reimberg himself claims crime has fallen 34% since January 2026, but the government’s own data shows January 2026 was still the second-deadliest January in Ecuador’s history. In November 2025, voters rejected Noboa’s proposed constitutional assembly and a referendum to allow foreign military bases, forcing the president to recalibrate through bilateral agreements rather than constitutional reform. The FBI office, the joint operations, and the Shield of Americas coalition represent that recalibration — achieving through executive agreements what the electorate would not grant through the ballot box.