A 94-page Human Rights Watch report released July 21 documents torture of farm workers, arbitrary detention, and unexplained drone attacks on fishing boats near the Galapagos Islands during what the US called 'partnered operations' with Ecuador's security forces from January to March 2026
The global supply chains moving cocaine from South America's Andean coca zones to North American, European, and emerging markets, the defining geography of transnational organized crime.
Global production topped 3,700 tonnes in the last UNODC count; Ecuadorian ports now move up to 80% of Europe's cocaine as Petro rejects UN monitoring
A January 2026 congressional report calls the ~16,000-vessel fleet a coordinated state instrument; Japan funds drone surveillance off South America