Ecuador's president asks U.S. for 'greater support' in the fight against drug trafficking

In a Tuesday meeting with U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso applauded the U.S. Senate bill that seeks to strengthen relations with Ecuador and called for Washington to offer “increased support” to combat drug trafficking.

"It is essential to have greater support from the United States to guarantee success in the fight that my government is leading head-on and relentlessly against this global scourge," Lasso told the senator.

The Andean president joined Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a virtual press conference following the Democratic lawmaker’s introduction of the United States-Ecuador Partnership Act of 2022, the first legislative proposal in the U.S. Congress to focus exclusively on U.S.-Ecuador relations.

As more Latin American nations continue to shift towards authoritarianism and embrace anti-market policies, the bipartisan proposal serves to recognize Ecuador as a key democratic partner in Latin America. The legislation also lays out a “comprehensive diplomatic strategy” to strengthen U.S.-Ecuador cooperation on multiple levels, including strengthening democratic institutions, promoting free-markets and expanding capabilities to fight corruption, crime and drug trafficking.

 “In the last five years, Ecuador has emerged as a model in Latin America and the Caribbean for its efforts to strengthen democratic governance and human rights, to promote inclusive economic growth that benefits all of its citizens, and to take steps to advance security, the rule of law, and environmental protections,” Menendez said in a press release. 

“When U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken gave his historic speech in October about strengthening democracy in the Americas and the 20th anniversary of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, he chose to do so in Ecuador, in an effort to highlight Ecuador’s significant successes,” he added.

Lasso in turn thanked the senator for working to strengthen bilateral relations between the two American nations and lauded his bill for containing "concrete actions" for inclusive economic growth "capacity expansion" to curb corruption and combat drug trafficking.

The South American president further warned that “drug trafficking” is an issue of equal importance for both countries" because it has "very negative repercussions" for both Ecuador and the United States. In the last year, Ecuadorian authorities seized a record breaking 210 tons of drugs – 96 of which were discovered in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s main commercial port and Lasso’s

In the last year, Ecuador broke a record with the seizure of 210 tons of drugs, of which 96 were found in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s main commercial port – Lasso’s city of birth.

Ultimately, relations between the U.S. and Ecuador have improved since Lasso took office in 2021 – a stark contrast to relations between 2007 and 2017 when socialist Rafael Correa was president.

"It is a clear sign that Ecuador has once again been considered a reliable and responsible partner." Lasso stressed.