The Trump administration is pushing Congress for additional funding to target Ecuador’s Los Tiguerones gang, which it has now labeled a terrorist organization following the group’s violent raid on a television station during a live broadcast. The move marks an escalation in the US campaign against drug traffickers accused of undermining stability across Latin America, with the secretary of state announcing the designation during a visit to Quito. The decision also aligns with broader efforts to strengthen security ties with right-wing leaders in the region, including Ecuador’s president, as part of a diplomatic tour aimed at countering transnational crime.
Trump administration to seek extra funding from Congress to ‘dismantle’ Los Tiguerones over narcotics traffickingThe US has designated Ecuador’s Los Tiguerones gang, which stormed a television station during a live broadcast in 2024, as a terrorist organisation as the Trump administration expands its campaign against narcotics traffickers it says are destabilising Latin America.The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made the announcement in Quito, where he met Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa, one of several rightwing allies of Donald Trump whom Rubio is courting as a security partner during a three-nation tour through Latin America that began on Tuesday. Continue reading...
