US/Ecuador: Abuses Proliferate as Security Cooperation Deepens

(Washington, DC, July 21, 2026) – The United States and Ecuador are deepening their security cooperation against a backdrop of serious human rights violations by Ecuadorian forces, unexplained drone attacks on fishing boats, and the disappearance of several fishermen, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The US Congress should urgently scrutinize these incidents and the broader security relationship between Ecuador and the United States. The XX-page report, A Dangerous Partnership: Abuses, Unanswered Questions, and US-Ecuador Security Cooperation, documents serious human rights violations in a rural community on the Colombia-Ecuador border, as well as attacks on and the disappearance of fishermen at sea near the Galápagos Islands. Each incident either clearly implicates the US-Ecuador security partnership or surfaces questions about responsibility. Ecuadorian forces tortured and arbitrarily detained four farm workers, and later burned and struck a dairy farm, during what the United States called a “partnered operation.” And drones of unknown origin attacked two fishing vessels, injuring several crew members. A third vessel remains missing.