FDLP-Ecuador: On the Yankee Imperialist Intervention
We hereby share an unofficial translation of a statement from the Defense Front of the People’s Struggles in Ecuador published on their website on the 13thof March.
The military operations carried out across the country in recent days by members of the police, the armed forces and US military personnel make one thing clear: it is Yankee imperialism that calls the shots in this country and sets economic, social, and “security” policies.
They want to impose an idea on us: that, in the face of daily terror—which has been normalized by the regime—the only way out is to open the door to foreign military forces. And without the slightest hint of shame, they present this as something necessary, even “natural,” hiding behind a ridiculous narrative that repeatedly claims that drug trafficking and terrorism are international; therefore, the combat against them must also be waged through international alliances. But it’s obvious: when we talk about joint operations and deployment on the ground, when foreign military action is normalized under the guise of support, we must say it without euphemisms: that is intervention.
And intervention doesn’t come only with helicopters, special forces, rifles, and henchmen running behind them. No. It comes with an architecture of power. It comes with secret agreements, chains of command, classified details, immunities, advice that turns into orders, and cooperation that ends up becoming control. It comes in practice, with military advice, the sale of military equipment, and the country’s further shackling to imperialism. It comes with a narrative designed to shatter national dignity and prepare an entire people for resignation: “Ecuador cannot do it alone.”
It is not enough for them to have meddled in the national economy, to have influenced major government decisions, and to have secured resources, geopolitical advantages, and political subordination. Now they are going for more. They want to permanently establish their police, military, and intelligence apparatus in the country. They want to monitor, direct, intervene, operate, and dictate. They want to turn Ecuador into a useful pawn in their regional strategy, into a platform subordinate to their interests and their wars.
Today, in Ecuador, camps allegedly belonging to FARC dissidents (one of the most frequently used talking points) are constantly being bombed, as are areas or camps believed to be linked to illegal mining. In addition, there is persecution, surveillance, and stalking of popular, union, indigenous and peasant leaders. Nothing and no one escapes the repressive radar.
Peasants who resist large-scale mining and the transnational corporations that are destroying the moorlands and forests are being intimidated. The opposition is being crushed; many of its members, including those in local governments, have been murdered, and these crimes are presented as the “work” of criminals. In other words, this is violence that has been instrumentalized and put at the service of imperialism and its main lackey: Noboa.
We are well aware of the operational, political, and moral limitations of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces and Police. We know that they do not exist to serve the people or to defend the interests of the vast majority, but rather to prop up the old bureaucratic big landlord State and safeguard the dominance of the big bourgeoisie and big landlords. But what we are seeing today is no longer just incompetence, corruption, or decay. It is something even more serious: a humiliating renunciation of any remaining shred of national dignity. Because when Noboa creates spaces for military bases on national territory, opens the doors to the FBI, and hands over direct control to a foreign agency, what he is saying, in effect, is that he does not even trust the Ecuadorian State’s own repressive structures. He calls them inept, useless, incapable. He replaces them, subordinates them, and places them under foreign command. And they accept that humiliation without decorum, without shame, without the slightest sense of sovereignty; and, as could not be otherwise, they become accomplices of imperialism, of subjugation, of an increasingly brazen interventionism—brutal proof of the regime’s degradation and its servility to the Yankees.
Furthermore, it is insulting that the United States would presume to present itself as a savior. It has been unable to curb drug trafficking within its own borders. It remains the largest consumer market for drugs on the planet, a key factor in the perpetuation of international criminal networks. Nor has it resolved human trafficking, structural violence, arms trafficking, or the social breakdown plaguing its own society. It attacks countries that refuse to fall within its strategic orbit; it kills children, as it did just a few days ago in Iran by deliberately bombing a school. What moral or political authority can it invoke to come and lecture us? What can it offer, apart from espionage, persecution, political control, and selective terrorism against those of us who reject and oppose it, as well as against opponents of the Noboa-backed government?
The Ecuadorian Constitution states (in its text) that the country is a territory of peace and expressly prohibits the establishment of foreign military bases or foreign facilities for military purposes. But when the government allows a foreign operational presence, when it facilitates military operations on our territory, and when it subordinates security policy to Washington’s strategy, it comes into direct conflict with that constitutional mandate. And it does so through the old trick of rhetoric, of official verbiage. They don’t call them military bases, but “cooperation.” They don’t say intervention; they call it “support.” They say anything, and their media operatives repeat it, “selling” it as absolute truth. This is how the ruling classes act, and nothing they do would be possible without the complicity of the opportunists and revisionists who did their part: demobilizing the popular movement.
The truth is even harsher. The Constitution hasn’t been worth a damn; and of course, it’s the political charter of those who hold power. Neither has the latest referendum. The victory of the “NO” vote against Noboa’s proposal was a damp squib. They have not served to halt the reactionary offensive, nor the militarization, nor the progressive and accelerated surrender of the crumbs of sovereignty we have left; nor have they stopped the precariousness of labor. In many cases, they have barely served to fuel the discourse of the tamed, electioneering left—of a spineless progressivism often preoccupied with the “right” of young people to be “furries” or to remain trapped in a “marijuana-fueled” environmentalist cause; as well as certain indigenous and union leaders who continue to believe that the power of the ruling classes can be tamed through ballots, consultations, and institutional rituals. It didn’t work! We must understand this once and for all: Noboa is not just the president. He, his family, and his economic power are part of the bloc of big bourgeoisie and big landlords who hold State power. And from there, they govern and legislate as they please, doing whatever they want with the entire State superstructure; after all, it belongs to them.
The presence of imperialist special forces does not eliminate criminal economies. It reshapes them, refining them into a machinery of control, making them more functional, more pragmatic, and more useful to the interests of imperialism and the ruling classes. The degree of subjugation advances to such an extent that we increasingly resemble a colony administered from the outside and guarded from within by local servants.
The recent meeting of several Latin American and Caribbean leaders convened by Trump in Florida on March 7, 2026, to launch the so-called “Shield of the Americas,” confirms the plan that imperialism has been rolling out across the continent. There, it was decided to promote a new continental coalition under US command under the pretext of combating the cartels and the aggressive penetration of Chinese imperialism. But what was presented as a security alliance is nothing more than a platform for regional militarization, diplomatic subordination, and geopolitical alignment. Trump gathered more than a dozen bootlickers, promoted an openly militaristic line, and even went so far as to propose the use of missiles against “crime bosses” if his partners request it.
The aggression against Venezuela, the pressure on Mexico, the criminalization of all forms of dissent under the stigma of “terrorism,” the militarization of entire provinces in Ecuador, the expansion of joint operations in Guayas, Los Ríos, Esmeraldas, Imbabura, Carchi, and the Amazon region, the “curfews”; as well as the use of intelligence campaigns to justify greater foreign interference, are not isolated incidents. They are pieces of the same continental offensive. What is underway is a reconfiguration of imperialist domination over its back yard in the Americas, a recolonization offensive supported by cowardly local bourgeoisie, lackeys, and those utterly incapable of maintaining a dignified national stance.
And within this offensive, we must issue a strong warning regarding Cuba. Trump has not only once again placed the island in the crosshairs of his missiles, but he previously spoke of a possible “friendly takeover” and claimed that Cuba is “at the end of the line,” insisting that Havana is seeking to negotiate with Washington.
Once again, we see that narrative—or language—of extortion and colonial arrogance, which feels entitled to dictate the fate of peoples. Any political, economic, or military maneuver against Cuba must be firmly rejected and fought. Noboa has already “done his part”; he lied about the role of Cuban diplomats in the country and brazenly expelled them, following Trump’s orders to the letter. It is up to the peoples to take the next step; after all, the Cuban people have historically been a bastion of resistance against Yankee imperialism.
In the face of all this, it is not enough to simply lament or express half-hearted outrage. We must speak out, yes, but we must also politically oppose this new phase of direct occupation. We must reject the foreign military presence. We must denounce the local servants of imperialism. We must take a firm stand for independence, dignity, and popular resistance. We must do what is our duty as a class and as a people who still possess dignity.
LONG LIVE THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE!
WE CANNOT FIGHT IMPERIALISM IF WE DO NOT FIGHT OPPORTUNISM!
LONG LIVE THE RESISTANCE OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE!
LONG LIVE THE RESISTANCE OF THE IRANIAN PEOPLE!
LET US RECLAIM OUR DIGNITY AND NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY!
CRIMINAL YANKEES AND ZIONISTS OUT OF THE COUNTRY!
