It was an Obama-era operation

artappraiser — Wed, 25 Dec 2019 20:03:05 +0000

In reply to The Ecuador Fishermen Snatched Away by US Drug Warriors

It was an Obama-era operation, "Operation Martillo" led by Gen. John Kelly:

The Maritime Drug Enforcement Act, enacted in 2006, declares it a crime against the United States to transport drugs in international waters—even without proof that the boats are headed to the US. The US has signed agreements with dozens of countries, including Ecuador, that allow US officials to board foreign vessels, detain suspected smugglers and prosecute them in the United States.

At first, the US Coast Guard captured around 200 foreigners at sea per year. But in 2012, under the leadership of General John Kelly, former chief of staff to President Trump, the US Department of Defense launched Operation Martillo to crack down on drug smuggling along the Pacific coast. Nearly overnight, US Coast Guard detentions tripled. From 2012 to 2018 the Coast Guard intercepted 1,066 tons of cocaine and detained 3,277 people suspected of smuggling—700 of them from Ecuador.

The repercussions of Operation Martillo have hit Ecuador’s impoverished coast hard. I met with a dozen women in Manta with incarcerated loved ones, but their support group, Organization de Mujeres de Pescadores en el Extranjero (OMPE, Organizations of Wives of Fishermen Abroad), numbers over 200.

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It was an Obama-era operation