{"id":5212,"date":"2025-04-06T15:55:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-06T15:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/06\/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-joins-security-operation-in-ecuador\/"},"modified":"2025-04-06T15:55:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T15:55:36","slug":"blackwater-founder-erik-prince-joins-security-operation-in-ecuador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/06\/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-joins-security-operation-in-ecuador\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackwater founder Erik Prince joins security operation in Ecuador"},"content":{"rendered":"

Erik Prince, founder of the controversial security contractor formerly known as Blackwater, joined in <\/strong>law enforcement operations on Saturday in Guayaquil, one of Ecuador\u2019s most violent cities, according to local officials. <\/p>\n

The operations saw 10 houses raided and 40 people detained, Ecuador\u2019s Interior Minister John Reimberg said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSince early this morning, the security block together with the American Erik Prince, a security expert, and the Ministers of Defense, Gian Carlo Loffredo and the Minister of the Interior, John Reimberg, were deployed in territory in Guayaquil, especially in the suburbs, attacking criminals and outlining strategies to strengthen the great actions of our law enforcement forces in the field of operations,\u201d Ecuador\u2019s Defense Ministry posted on X Saturday morning. <\/p>\n

Prince also said in a video posted by Ecuador\u2019s Defense Ministry <\/strong>that he was in the country \u201cproviding the law enforcement and the military the tools and the tactics to effectively combat the narco-gangs.\u201d <\/p>\n

The aim, Prince continued, is to \u201cput the narcos on their back heels and make them truly afraid of being caught.\u201d <\/p>\n

His visit to the South American nation comes weeks after Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa announced a \u201cstrategic alliance\u201d with Prince <\/strong>to fight organized crime. <\/p>\n

\u2018A historic chapter for security\u2019 in Ecuador<\/h2>\n

Ecuador\u2019s Defense Ministry called Prince\u2019s participation on Saturday a \u201chistoric chapter for security\u201d for the nation. <\/p>\n

The country\u2019s Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo said Prince and his team are currently providing training and advice to Ecuador\u2019s security forces \u2013 but added that their scope of action could be expanded. \u201cThey may not be limited to just those actions,\u201d Loffredo said. <\/p>\n

Prince has been in the country for a \u201cfew days,\u201d and work is ongoing to develop a new plan to combat Ecuador\u2019s gangs, he also said. <\/p>\n

In recent years, Ecuador \u2013 which is sandwiched between Colombia and Peru, top producers of cocaine \u2013 has become caught up in the drug trade and the violence that always follows it. Its efficient transport and export system has been used by cartels to move and ship their goods overseas \u2014 the bricks of cocaine hidden in boxes of bananas and other goods that then head to the United States,\u202fEurope\u202fand the rest of the world. <\/p>\n

Noboa\u2019s efforts however will be heavily dependent on next week\u2019s presidential runoff vote. He\u2019s set off to face leftist candidate Luisa Gonzalez, who has positioned herself as equally tough on crime but opposes the presence of any foreign force in the country. <\/p>\n

In the same video posted by the defense ministry, Prince called on Ecuadorians to vote for Noboa, warning that otherwise Ecuador risked \u201clooking just like Venezuela, a narco-state with massive drug processing with all the criminality and socialism and despair that comes with that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope Ecuador chooses law and order and we are here to help to combat the gangs and to provide the tools for the government to restore law and order, peace and prosperity,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Erik Prince, founder of the controversial security contractor formerly known as Blackwater, joined in law enforcement operations on Saturday in Guayaquil, one of Ecuador\u2019s most violent cities, according to local officials. The operations saw 10 houses raided and 40 people detained, Ecuador\u2019s Interior Minister John Reimberg said. \u201cSince early this morning, the security block together…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}