MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador accepts military help from Argentina and the US

It “is not the moment to say no out of ego or vanity,” Noboa insisted

Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa Friday said his government would be accepting the military cooperation offered by Argentina and the United States among other countries because the situation did not allow for egos to stand in the way.

“We are working with more than 38 nations that will provide international assistance. We have accepted the support of Argentina and the United States,” said the head of state in a radio interview. His country is in a deep crisis after drug trafficker Adolfo Macias, alias Fito, leader of the Los Choneros gang escaped from jail earlier this week triggering a wave of crime and violence that has so far left some 15 people dead, many others wounded, and no less than 178 corrections officers held hostage by prison inmates.

It “is not the moment to say no out of ego or vanity. We need military support in terms of manpower, and soldiers, as well as assistance in intelligence, artillery, and equipment,” Noboa said.

“What happens in Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, [and] Bolivia influences Argentina,” Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said in Buenos Aires. “It is a continental issue,” she stressed. “We have to protect ourselves,” she added.

Noboa declared an “Internal Armed Conflict,” ordering the Armed Forces to neutralize criminal gangs.

US government officials are expected to be traveling to Quito in the “coming weeks” to “explore with their Ecuadorian counterparts ways” to “confront the threat posed by transnational criminal organizations.”

“We reaffirm our commitment to maintaining close cooperation with Ecuador, including in the fight against criminal organizations,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller detailed. “We will work with President Noboa to deepen our law enforcement cooperation through U.S. security assistance programs,” he underlined.

Noboa also warned judges and prosecutors that whoever helps the terrorist groups identified by the State will be considered a part of the terrorism network and tried as such. “We cannot fight this from only one side, and it is not only bullets, it is also in the Judicial Function,” he said. “We will consider judges and prosecutors who support terrorist leaders also as part of the terrorist group,” he stressed.