State Department adds Ecuadorean gang Chone Killers to terrorist list

Move brings total designated Latin American gangs to 16

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday designated the Ecuadorean gang Chone Killers as a foreign terrorist organization and as a specially designated global terrorist, according to a State Department statement. The action makes it a federal crime to knowingly provide material support to the group and blocks its property and interests in property within U.S. jurisdiction.

In a statement, Rubio accused Chone Killers of helping Mexican cartels move and export drugs to fund terrorism and criminal activity, as well as attacking civilians, law enforcement officers and government officials.

“The Trump administration, in partnership with Ecuador and President Daniel Noboa, will continue to protect our hemisphere by keeping illicit drugs off our streets and disrupting the revenue streams funding violent narcoterrorists,” Rubio said.

Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility thanked the United States in an online statement for what it called “firm support” for President Daniel Noboa’s “all-out fight against criminal organizations.”

“This cooperation is fundamental to dismantling transnational mafias and guaranteeing the safety, stability and peace of all Ecuadorians,” the ministry said.

With the designation, the Trump administration has now labeled 16 Latin American gangs and drug cartels as terrorist organizations since eight were designated in February as part of what President Donald Trump has described as an aggressive anti-narcoterrorism campaign. Trump has argued the United States is in “armed conflict” with these groups, a claim his administration has cited as part of its legal and policy rationale for using the military against alleged drug-trafficking vessels.

The designation follows a period of U.S. military strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats in international waters. Since early September, U.S. Southern Command has struck 66 vessels and killed at least 213 people, according to the administration. The most recent strike, on June 21, killed two people and left six survivors whose status was unknown, as MSI previously reported in an article on June 22. The White House alleges the boats are operated by criminal organizations, though SOUTHCOM does not name the specific gang piloting the vessels it attacks and has not provided proof that drugs were onboard.

The Trump administration’s use of terrorist designations and military strikes has drawn domestic and international condemnation, including from the United Nations. Human rights groups and legal analysts have warned against expanding the use of the military to conduct what they describe as law-enforcement actions.