US strikes on Ecuadorian fishing boats raise humanitarian concerns but Trump admin not wavering
Attorney says fishers ‘losing their livelihoods’, but Marco Rubio maintains US still willing to ‘blow up ships if need be’ While the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio , was being decorated in Quito by Ecuador’s president for “helping to promote peace in the region”, 10 Ecuadorian fishers whose boat had been blown up by US forces were adrift in the eastern Pacific. On 8 September, a day before…
A group of 10 Ecuadorian fishermen found themselves adrift in the Pacific Ocean after their boat was destroyed by U.S. forces on September 8. The captain, Mero Calderón, claimed that the U.S. was armed as if for war and refused to listen as he showed them their catch. After being handcuffed and blindfolded, the fishermen were taken aboard a U.S. ship and handed over to local authorities.
However, only 10 of the crew members were rescued by the Ecuadorian navy on September 10, while the remaining 10 were left out at sea. A U.S. Southern Command video claimed that the vessel was being used as a 'floating refueling station' for speedboats allegedly carrying drugs, but the fishermen deny this. Eight operations against Ecuadorian boats took place in two weeks, all supported by Ecuador's right-wing president Daniel Noboa. Trump has described these drug trafficking operations as comparable to the campaign against ISIS.
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