Ecuador's Government joins US in designating Cartel of the Suns a 'Terrorist Organized Crime Group'

The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, on Thursday designated the Cartel of the Suns as an "organized crime terrorist group," through a press release issued by the Ecuadorian Presidency in which he explained that he considered the Venezuelan criminal organization as "a threat to the population." Likewise, the government of Ecuador expressed through its communiqué that Noboa identified the group as a terrorist organization as it constitutes a serious threat to "the constituted order, sovereignty and integrity of the State."

Likewise, the Ecuadorian government indicated in its communiqué that the country's National Intelligence Center will have, as part of this measure, the responsibility to examine the influence of the Cartel of the Suns in the different "organized armed groups identified to date and categorize it accordingly."At the end of its communiqué, Noboa's government explained that said body will articulate and coordinate collaboration with different intelligence agencies of other nations to reinforce the fight against this criminal group.

Noboa had declared the Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization

According to different investigations by international authorities and several media outlets, the Cartel of the Suns is a drug trafficking organization commanded by members of the Venezuelan military high command, which would also count with the participation of several important figures of the Venezuelan regime. Recently, the Administration of President Donald Trump accused Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro of being the leader of a drug cartel, which he designated as a terrorist organization.

Prior to Thursday's announcement, Noboa had declared the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua a terrorist organization, shortly after the White House made the decision to designate this gang and other criminal groups in the region as terrorist organizations that posed a threat to U.S. national security. In addition to the Tren de Aragua, the Ecuadorian government listed as terrorists the Óliver Sinisterra Front and the Border Commandos, which are dissident criminal structures of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).