Gen. Laura Richardson, head of the U.S. Southern Command, and civilian officials will visit the ailing South American country in the coming weeks. They should “examine with Ecuadorian colleagues how we can work together more effectively to counter the threat from transnational criminal organizations,” the statement said.
The Andean country has been suffering from an escalating insecurity crisis for more than two years, which has reached a new low in the past week with a series of outbreaks of violence. Heavily armed crime gangs fight each other for control of cocaine smuggling routes and regularly clash with security services.