As airstrikes and reports of torture under Ecuador’s U.S.-backed military regime continue to mount, fishermen tell Drop Site News they were blindfolded and held hostage for eight days.
A truly heartbreaking report. Not once has the US ever provided proof that they are summarily executing drug dealers on the high seas. If anything, this reporting reinforces the widespread belief that they are murdering innocents and, or, torturing survivors of their inhumane attacks. One can only hope - pray - that there is a future in which all the participants of these heinous acts will face a day of reckoning.
I’m not an attorney but pretty clear that these are acts of international terrorism as defined by US law.
1) the term “international terrorism” means activities that—
(A) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State;
This isn’t just a “dark story”—it’s an indictment. If even a fraction of these accounts are true, we’re looking at extrajudicial violence, enforced disappearances, and torture carried out under the cover of “counternarcotics.” The most disturbing part isn’t just the brutality—it’s the total absence of accountability. Boats are bombed, survivors describe being hooded and abused, and both governments respond with silence, denial, or insinuations that the victims somehow deserved it.
We’ve seen this pattern before: label civilians as suspects, destroy the evidence, and let geopolitics bury the story. The fact that these fishermen were cleared by authorities before being attacked makes the “drug war” justification look even thinner. If there were real evidence, it would be presented—not erased along with the boats.
What’s happening here demands independent international investigation, not press office deflection. Otherwise, “security cooperation” just becomes a euphemism for impunity.
Thank you! This is an incredibly important story and it reveals the complete impunity with which the US and Ecuadorian governments operate. Please share this story widely!
Noboa, the “cool” dictator. Have the peoples south of the US border not suffered enough? Decades of extrajudicial killings and regime change. It’s beyond disgusting and cruel. Iran, Lebanon, Venezuela, Cuba, on and on. Enough!
Typical (throughout its history, btw) American white supremacist psychopathy. The country is run wholly by the very worst people within its borders. A true kakistocracy. We need a new system from the bottom up. Nothing else will do.
My deep gratitude. It is so important to be aware of these horrifying practices, the deep corruption and the role played by the United States military. This is state terrorism.
The only rational thought I have right now is this: **minus enforcement**, international law is nothing more than a good daydream. It's a really nice thought - and it's a thought that keeps us docile. Justice is always around the "next" corner - to infinity.
I thought the following really spoke to just how much **structure** there is between the hell that is this world and average people's aspirations to simply live:
"The Miami-born billionaire, who was elected president of Ecuador only after the assassination of his political rival, Fernando Villavicencio; American mercenary group, Blackwater, patrolled voting sites on election day. Noboa has since built a military regime, backed by the U.S. through Pentagon-supplied bombs, and enforced using a never-ending decree that the country is in a state of war. The FBI even opened its first office on Ecuadorian soil under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking. A UN probe determined there was insufficient legal basis for Noboa’s state of war decree."
What is the purpose of these vessel seizures? I think it's important to know just what this is all about, whether random violence to cow the public or something else. Knowing what is going on is valuable, but I hope there will soon be a more analytical article.
its to terrorize any resistance to far right narco states and by extension any resistance to US hegemony. Just look at the senseless violence zionists inflict in Palestinians. its to terrorize peple into submission.
It seems like you're asking for an official statement/explanation from lawless authorities.
"Drop Site reached out to the U.S. Southern Command for comment on all three incidents; they said they had no information to provide and directed questions to Ecuador. Drop Site asked Ecuador’s Port Authority for comment. They hung up after hearing the call was from journalists."
They're putting the pieces together as well as any outlet could considering.
Not at all. I'm asking for Dropsite to do another article giving their perspective of what the lawless authorities are doing, which includes what these authorities think they are accomplishing, and what is actually being accomplished.
Nothing in my comment states that I want anything from the lawless authorities, but, rather, looking for a thoughtful analysis of these actions that are now so very many km more emboldened than in the past.
We have to start prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity! This is completely unacceptable! How do we get soldiers in the US military who have zero compassion for humanity? Then they come back home to zero healthcare or mental healthcare and are expected to be good citizens?
This is criminal sociopathic behavior that needs to be stopped immediately.
Thank you for reporting on this. There’s not enough Western news coverage on the US’s war crimes in Latin America
In germany even 0... such a shame
A truly heartbreaking report. Not once has the US ever provided proof that they are summarily executing drug dealers on the high seas. If anything, this reporting reinforces the widespread belief that they are murdering innocents and, or, torturing survivors of their inhumane attacks. One can only hope - pray - that there is a future in which all the participants of these heinous acts will face a day of reckoning.
I’m not an attorney but pretty clear that these are acts of international terrorism as defined by US law.
1) the term “international terrorism” means activities that—
(A) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State;
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2331
This isn’t just a “dark story”—it’s an indictment. If even a fraction of these accounts are true, we’re looking at extrajudicial violence, enforced disappearances, and torture carried out under the cover of “counternarcotics.” The most disturbing part isn’t just the brutality—it’s the total absence of accountability. Boats are bombed, survivors describe being hooded and abused, and both governments respond with silence, denial, or insinuations that the victims somehow deserved it.
We’ve seen this pattern before: label civilians as suspects, destroy the evidence, and let geopolitics bury the story. The fact that these fishermen were cleared by authorities before being attacked makes the “drug war” justification look even thinner. If there were real evidence, it would be presented—not erased along with the boats.
What’s happening here demands independent international investigation, not press office deflection. Otherwise, “security cooperation” just becomes a euphemism for impunity.
Is Marco Rubio laying cover for a future Cuba-Ecuador business? Marco’s involvement in his family cocaine business is like media wallpaper these days.
To sink fishing boats and allow the real smugglers to return home doesn’t leave much else to consider.
https://prospect.org/2025/12/23/narco-terrorist-elite-rubio-south-america-iran-contra/
Thank you! This is an incredibly important story and it reveals the complete impunity with which the US and Ecuadorian governments operate. Please share this story widely!
Noboa, the “cool” dictator. Have the peoples south of the US border not suffered enough? Decades of extrajudicial killings and regime change. It’s beyond disgusting and cruel. Iran, Lebanon, Venezuela, Cuba, on and on. Enough!
Typical (throughout its history, btw) American white supremacist psychopathy. The country is run wholly by the very worst people within its borders. A true kakistocracy. We need a new system from the bottom up. Nothing else will do.
How long are we going to accept this murderous, violent intimidation? Undemocratic to say the least, illegal and unconstitutional too.
I hear you. Apparently a very, very long time. It has been going on all of my 67 years with no end in sight. Trump is the crowning culmination.
My deep gratitude. It is so important to be aware of these horrifying practices, the deep corruption and the role played by the United States military. This is state terrorism.
Finally a report on the assassinations of fishermen which the legacy media has avoided like Epstein.
I'm at a loss for a **productive** response..
The only rational thought I have right now is this: **minus enforcement**, international law is nothing more than a good daydream. It's a really nice thought - and it's a thought that keeps us docile. Justice is always around the "next" corner - to infinity.
I thought the following really spoke to just how much **structure** there is between the hell that is this world and average people's aspirations to simply live:
"The Miami-born billionaire, who was elected president of Ecuador only after the assassination of his political rival, Fernando Villavicencio; American mercenary group, Blackwater, patrolled voting sites on election day. Noboa has since built a military regime, backed by the U.S. through Pentagon-supplied bombs, and enforced using a never-ending decree that the country is in a state of war. The FBI even opened its first office on Ecuadorian soil under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking. A UN probe determined there was insufficient legal basis for Noboa’s state of war decree."
There’s no doubt that America is no longer one of the good guys.
The U.S. continues to cause chaos around the world creating new networks of terror and profit.
What is the purpose of these vessel seizures? I think it's important to know just what this is all about, whether random violence to cow the public or something else. Knowing what is going on is valuable, but I hope there will soon be a more analytical article.
its to terrorize any resistance to far right narco states and by extension any resistance to US hegemony. Just look at the senseless violence zionists inflict in Palestinians. its to terrorize peple into submission.
Are you saying the fishermen are being treated like potential resistance fighters? It seems more random and haphazard than that to me.
It seems like you're asking for an official statement/explanation from lawless authorities.
"Drop Site reached out to the U.S. Southern Command for comment on all three incidents; they said they had no information to provide and directed questions to Ecuador. Drop Site asked Ecuador’s Port Authority for comment. They hung up after hearing the call was from journalists."
They're putting the pieces together as well as any outlet could considering.
Not at all. I'm asking for Dropsite to do another article giving their perspective of what the lawless authorities are doing, which includes what these authorities think they are accomplishing, and what is actually being accomplished.
Nothing in my comment states that I want anything from the lawless authorities, but, rather, looking for a thoughtful analysis of these actions that are now so very many km more emboldened than in the past.
We have to start prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity! This is completely unacceptable! How do we get soldiers in the US military who have zero compassion for humanity? Then they come back home to zero healthcare or mental healthcare and are expected to be good citizens?
This is criminal sociopathic behavior that needs to be stopped immediately.