House Progressives Demand Pentagon Answer for Alleged Abuse in US-Ecuador Operation

Greg Casar (Texas), Jesús Chuy García (Ill.), and Sara Jacobs (Calif.), the lawmakers called for an explanation of the administration's legal justification for the involvement of US armed forces in these operations, which have not been authorized by Congress, as well as their immediate suspension until these incidents are fully investigated.The Democrats' letter to US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth cites reporting that one target appears to have been a civilian dairy and cattle farm with no known links to armed groups or drug trafficking, where witnesses said Ecuadorian military personnel interrogated and assaulted unarmed civilians, burned homes and infrastructure, and subjected detainees to torture.Beyond these recent incidents, we are concerned that our military is deepening its ties with the government of Ecuador, even as it undergoes an alarming authoritarian and anti-democratic drift, the Democrats wrote, pointing out that President Daniel Noboa has overseen the violent repression of Indigenous-led protests, publicly threatened the Constitutional Court, and frozen the bank accounts of civil society organizations.Noboa's allies have also pursued questionable cases against his political opponents, as Ecuadorians have endured more than two years of a prolonged state of emergency, marked by the military's domestic deployment to combat so-called 'narco-terrorists, the letter continues. With investigative reporting now linking President Noboa's family business to drug trafficking and the same illicit networks he claims to be fighting, an independent and transparent investigation into these allegations is warranted. The letter stresses that if US forces provide new or continued security assistance to units that engaged in acts such as torture, extrajudicial killings, or enforced disappearances, and there is no credible investigation or prosecution underway, this would constitute a violation of the Leahy Laws, which prohibit assistance to foreign security forces credibly implicated in gross human rights violations without effective steps to bring those responsible to justice.The Democrats—supported by Amnesty International USA, Center for Civilians in Conflict, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Human Rights First, Latin American Working Group, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, StoptheDrugWar.org, Washington Office on Latin America, and Win Without War—demanded a prompt and complete response to their list of questions by May 22.The United States cannot continue to be complicit in abuses abroad. There must be accountability, García said on social media.As El País reported Wednesday, the letter was made public as Noboa began a two-day trip to Washington, DC, during which he is set to meeting with US Vice President JD Vance and Organization of American States Secretary General Albert Ramdin.