Yankee Imperialism Prepares MQ-9 Reaper Drones for “Counterterrorism” Operations in Latin America
Featured image: Image montage featuring US President Donald Trump during the Shield of the Americas Summit in March 2026, and banners and flags from a large demonstration by peasants from the League of the Poor Peasants (LCP) in defense of President Gonzalo, held in the Brazilian countryside in 2021. Source: AND
On September 18, the MQ-9 Reaper Drones currently stationed in Africa under the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) will be transferred for operations in Latin America and the Caribbean under the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), A Nova Democracia (AND) reports.
MQ-9 Reapers are used for “intelligence, surveillance, and precision strikes,” and are likely to be deployed in Ecuador – according to a US press source – where Yankee military forces have expanded joint operations with the local Armed Forces. This comes as Yankee imperialism keeps expanding its operational capabilities in the region, as part of their strategy underlined in the National Security Strategy of 2025 “to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere.” As part of this, drones, fighter jets, and other aircraft have been deployed to the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific, and an active campaign is underway to further subordinate the continent under Yankee imperialist interests under the false premise of combating “narco-terrorism.”
AND reports that the use of categories such as “drug trafficking,” “terrorism,” and “insurgency” has clear precedence, with the State department placing organizations like the Communist Party of Peru (PCP), the National Liberation Army (ELN), the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on the first list of “Foreign Terrorist Organizations.” “Anti-drug” operations in Colombia were carried out through Plan Colombia, which funded “anti-narcotics” military battalions, helicopters, intelligence, and operations in the south of the country – in reality a cover for counter-revolutionary operations against the anti-imperialist-inspired guerrillas. Similar operations were also carried out against the PCP in Peru, in an attempt by Yankee imperialism to justify its counter-revolutionary military intervention.
AND also writes that as early as in 2008, the then-chairman of the the Senate’s Foreign Relations and National Defense Committee, Heráclito Fortes, alerted the US embassy about an alleged guerrilla force “similar to the FARC,” specifically identifying the LCP, with the then-ambassador Clifford Sobel noting that the embassy did not have sufficient information to assess the accuracy and seriousness of the accusations. AND concludes: “In other words, almost two decades before Washington’s current policy against organizations classified as “narco-terrorists,” the LCP already appeared in official communications to the US government under the guise of a possible guerrilla group with alleged international connections.”
