Ecuador | Pakistan

The United States announced a temporary deployment of Air Force personnel to Ecuador on Wednesday as part of its regional anti-narcotics campaign. There was no indication of the scale of the deployment, which comes as tensions are rising over the standoff between Latin American oil producer Venezuela and the United States. The personnel will be deployed at Ecuador’s Manta air force base, which had served as a US base for a decade until 2009. Ecuadoran voters in November overwhelmingly rejected a bid by President Daniel Noboa to lift the country’s ban on foreign bases. But according to the US embassy in Quito, the deployment is a “temporary operation with the Ecuadorian Air Force in Manta”. The “short-term joint effort” will “enhance the capacity of the Ecuadorian military forces to combat narco-terrorists, including strengthening intelligence gathering and anti-drug trafficking capabilities, and is designed to protect the United States and Ecuador from the threats we share”. Ecuador’s defence ministry said th...

Gunmen shot dead at least seven people at a pool hall in the Ecuadoran city of Santo Domingo, police said Sunday, in the country’s latest gruesome massacre amid soaring gang violence. “Seven people died from gunshot wounds” at a pool hall in the nightlife district of Santo Domingo, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) west of […]