US moves spy drones from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador to combat drug trafficking

The United States has sent spy drones to Colombia and Ecuador to support both countries’ actions against organized crime, two military sources told the newspaper The New York Times. The aircraft involved are an undetermined number of MQ-9 Reapers that had been stationed in Africa. Although their primary roles are linked to surveillance, they can be used in offensive operations. The arrival of these aircraft, announced by Colombia in August, cements Washington’s growing active role in the operations of the armed forces of the two South American countries, which in recent months have agreed to begin “joint operations.”

It is “a significant signal from the administration that we are getting serious,” said retired diplomat Francisco Palmieri, former chargé d’affaires in Bogotá, in remarks to the Times. “As a political symbol, it’s unmistakable. It’s a sign of a commitment to expand both the level and type of cooperation,” he added. Days earlier, General Francis Donovan had said Washington intends to expand the strikes it began last year against small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that it identified as drug traffickers to the wider continent.

MQ-9 Reapers provide ground reconnaissance and surveillance activities without exposing military personnel, as happens with traditional combat aircraft. They can fly at altitudes of up to 15,000 meters and are hard to detect. They can also carry precision munitions. “They cannot cause large-scale destruction in quantitative terms, but they can qualitatively: they are indispensable for destroying very selective targets, such as people,” Félix Arteaga, an international security expert at Spain’s Royal Elcano Institute, told this newspaper a few years ago. They have a 20-meter wingspan, are 11 meters long and 4 meters high. They cost around $30 million per unit.

MQ-9 Reapers are already used along the U.S.–Mexico border. According to reporting by The New York Times early last year, overflights to monitor cartel activities inside Mexican territory began during the administration of Joe Biden (2021–2025) and intensified after Donald Trump returned to power. The information collected, the U.S. paper reported then, was shared with Mexican authorities.

A few weeks ago, CNN reported that the United States would move “most” of the drones stationed in Africa to Latin America, but did not specify which countries would receive them. It noted that the decision worried some military commanders: activity by Islamic State and Al-Shabaab in Africa, now deprioritized, could increase with the withdrawal of the drones. Colombian media, meanwhile, reported in August an agreement had been reached with the United States to receive three MQ-9 Reapers and to purchase one of its own.

Quito and Bogotá have taken military cooperation with Washington to an unprecedented level. In March, U.S. Southern Command (SouthCom) announced the start of joint operations with Ecuador to confront “designated terrorist organizations.” The government of Daniel Noboa confirmed it but declined to provide further details, saying the information is classified. A few months later, after Abelardo de la Espriella came to power, Colombia followed the same path. U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Bogotá had authorized him to start operations “to destroy terrorists and terrorist networks.” Colombia confirmed the announcement and said in a press statement that the decision reaffirms the country’s commitment to “a coordinated hemispheric response.”

Both countries have joined the Shield of the Americas, a coalition that Trump assembled with friendly governments to fight drug trafficking in the region. “These kinds of initiatives serve to defend our democracies in the region,” Colombia’s vice president José Manuel Restrepo said recently during a meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly. Meanwhile, attacks against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Pacific and the Caribbean have continued — operations Bogotá denounced as extrajudicial executions during Gustavo Petro’s government (2022–2026). At least 230 people have already died, with no evidence that the strikes have been effective at reducing the flow of drugs into the United States.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition