Noboa Says U.S. Troops Could Deploy to Ecuador This Year

Noboa’s call for US troops in Ecuador marks the most explicit invitation for American military presence in the country since Washington’s departure from the Manta air base in 2009, and the latest escalation in what has become the most extensive US-Latin American security partnership in decades, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

Speaking from his home in Guayaquil, Noboa framed the potential deployment as international cooperation rather than foreign intervention. He said the troops would follow Ecuadorian military guidelines and that the partnership reflected shared interests with the Trump administration in combating narco-trafficking across the hemisphere. Noboa told Bloomberg the deployment could happen this year, though he provided no timeline for a formal agreement.

What’s Already Happening on the Ground

The invitation builds on an operational reality that has been developing rapidly. In March, Ecuador deployed 75,000 troops and police in its largest anti-narcotics offensive, backed by US Southern Command logistics, intelligence, and advisory support. The two-week curfew across four coastal provinces ended with 1,200 arrests and 707 weapons seized. The FBI opened its first permanent office in Quito in March, the US deployed MQ-9 Reaper drones for persistent surveillance, and American special forces advisers embedded with Ecuadorian units during operations against FARC dissident camps near the Colombian border.

Noboa cited the results as evidence the approach works. Government data show a nearly 35% year-on-year decline in violent crime in border conflict zones during Q1 2026 — a reversal in a country that recorded approximately 9,235 homicides in 2025, a national record and a rate of roughly 50 per 100,000 residents. Ecuador’s homicide rate has multiplied sevenfold since 2019, driven by record Colombian cocaine production transiting through Ecuadorian ports to the US, Europe, and beyond.

The Referendum Problem

Noboa’s statement carries a political complication he did not address in the Bloomberg interview. In November 2025, Ecuadorian voters rejected a package of constitutional reforms that included a provision to allow the return of foreign military bases — a referendum Noboa himself promoted. The current US military presence operates under cooperation agreements and temporary mission frameworks that avoid the need for a formal basing arrangement. Whether a full troop deployment can be sustained under the same legal architecture remains untested.

Noboa compared his security strategy to that of former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe, who combined military offensives with economic development and extended state presence into conflict zones. He distinguished his approach from that of El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, who reduced gang violence through mass incarceration with minimal due process. Noboa rejected fuel subsidy restoration despite rising global oil prices from the Middle East conflict, signaling fiscal discipline alongside the security spending.

What It Means for the Region

Ecuador has become Washington’s most willing partner in the hemisphere’s drug war — a role that has deepened in parallel with the Trump administration’s broader militarization of counter-cartel policy under the “Shield of the Americas” coalition. Noboa’s public invitation for troops goes further than any sitting Latin American president has in recent memory, and it arrives at a moment when the US is simultaneously expanding military cooperation with Paraguay, Chile, and Argentina. For Ecuador, the calculation is straightforward: the country cannot defeat the cartels alone, and the political cost of American boots on the ground is lower than the cost of 50 murders per 100,000 people.