INTERNACIONAL
Fears of another narco-state rise as Latin American country readies for pivotal vote
Ecuadorians go to the polls today in a runoff election between incumbent President Daniel Noboa and leftist challenger Luisa González. Noboa is seen as a pro-Trump conservative, while González is viewed as an ideological ally of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Noboa refused to recognize Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela after his staged 2024 election and is also committed to fighting criminal gangs with all available resources to restore peace and security in Ecuador.
It’s expected González will follow in the footsteps of her mentor, former president Rafael Correa, and seek stronger ties with Latin America’s leftist governments of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silval, Gustavo Petro of Colombia and Gabriel Boric of Chile.
«Security has been his principal mandate as the president of Ecuador. He’s dedicated a lot of time, effort and resources to deal with the security situation,» Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society and senior fellow of the America First Policy Institute, told Fox News Digital.
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Ecuador President Daniel Noboa, who is running for re-election, waves after accompanying his running mate, Maria Jose Pinto, to cast her ballot during the presidential election in Quito, Ecuador, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)
«However, there’s been only marginal improvements in the security situation, and it’s compounded with other problems,» Humire added.
González is running on a platform calling for an increase in the military’s role in fighting gang violence but also strongly condemns excessive use of force and abuse of human rights.
She «appears to have a softer perspective on the issue of crime, meaning she has not stated her willingness to chase drug cartels but, most probably, would intend to negotiate with them,» Mathias Valdez Duffau, visiting fellow at the Center for International Studies at Catholic University of Argentina, told Fox News Digital.
Valdez Duffao said a policy of negotiation is similar to the policy of former President Correa’s administration and would focus on whole-of-government crime reduction approaches that would look to integrate criminal gangs into civil society.
«The reality is that negotiating with criminal gangs might give the government a short-term space to maneuver, but the gangs become stronger and end up co-opting government officials, which eventually leads the country to the brink of becoming a narco-state,» ValdezDuffao warned.
Luisa González, presidential candidate for the Citizen Revolution Movement, speaks after polls closed for the presidential election in Quito, Ecuador, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)
Violence and insecurity remain at the top of voters’ minds. Ecuador has the highest murder rate in Latin America, with 6,986 recorded homicides in 2024, making it the second most violent year in Ecuador’s history. Some 95,000 people fled the country in 2024 as many communities became focal points of turf wars between rival gangs competing for territory.
President Noboa declared an internal armed conflict in 2024 and ordered the armed forces to carry out military operations to neutralize various transnational organized crime groups. The anti-crime initiative saw an increase in the military’s presence in prisons and communities across the country.
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Blackwater founder Erik Prince walks with police officers during the Apolo 13 anti-crime operation April 5, 2025, in Guayaquil, Ecuador. (Agencia Press South/Getty Images)
Noboa also called for the international community to provide military assistance and suggested the U.S. army could work with Ecuador to combat violent gangs.
Despite the president’s hardline position on crime, January 2025 was Ecuador’s most violent month in recent history, with 781 people killed. Noboa partnered with Erik Prince, founder of the private security firm Blackwater, and formed a strategic alliance in March to strengthen Ecuador’s ability to fight narcoterrorism.
Ecuador’s National Police presents individuals detained during a police operation after gang clashes that resulted in multiple victims in Guayaquil, Ecuador, March 7, 2025. (Ecuador Interior Ministry/Handout via Reuters)
InSight Crime, a nonprofit focusing on organized crime and security in the Americas, reports that Ecuador is one of the region’s «most significant drug trafficking hubs» and ships cocaine from Peru and Colombia to Central America, Mexico and Europe. Many of these drug trafficking organizations working through local proxies and other criminal groups have infiltrated the prison system and expanded its network of street gangs.
The various groups operating throughout Ecuadorian society and within the prison system work with domestic and international drug traffickers, including the Sinaloa Cartel, considered one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world and responsible for a large amount of fentanyl trafficked into the U.S., according to the Department of Justice.
President Noboa and González each received around 44% of the vote in the first round of the election. González is the leader of Citizen Revolution and is considered the heir of former President Correa. She’s also looking to become the first female president of Ecuador. If she wins, Ecuador could see a return to the leftist economic policies of the Correa presidency.
Banners with an image of Daniel Noboa, Ecuador’s president and a presidential candidate (top) and leftist presidential candidate Luisa González are pictured on a street in Guayaquil, Ecuador, April 11, 2025. Ecuador will hold a presidential runoff April 13. (Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images)
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Whoever wins in the second round will have to contend with an evenly divided National Assembly split between both parties, making legislation to solve the country’s endemic violence and economic problems even more difficult.
Saúl Medina, a former governor of Tungurahua, told Fox News Digital that, after the electoral cycle, a comprehensive and determined strategy to combat gang violence must be enacted.
Men lie face down on the ground, detained by police outside TC Television after a producer told police they were part of a group that broke onto their set during a live broadcast in Guayaquil, Ecuador. (AP/Cesar Munoz)
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Two of the most important issues that must be addressed, according to Medina, are strengthening institutions and executing better oversight of the police and justice system to root out corruption, and prison reform.
«Prisons must stop being operational centers for gangs,» Medina added.
Valdez Duffao, Humire and other experts on Latin America agreed Noboa has ingratiated himself with President Trump. They are ideologically similar and, should Noboa win, it could put him in a better position to address the country’s endemic violence.
INTERNACIONAL
DHS unloads on anti-ICE Dems after man arrested with manifesto, ‘disturbing’ alleged plot to kill agents
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FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security is speaking out against immigration rhetoric from Democrats and launching an investigation after a U.S. citizen in Oregon was arrested and found with a manifesto stating his plans to kill U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.
Last week, the St. Helen’s Police Department north of Portland arrested an 18-year-old during a traffic stop after he was found with knives and materials used to manufacture Molotov cocktails, according to police, Fox 12 Oregon reported.
The individual, Rayden Coleman, is also alleged to have authored a manifesto outlining a plan to kill ICE agents at a Portland ICE office in an attack using Molotov cocktails and a gun. Additionally, Coleman reportedly told investigators about his plan and that he was set to pick up an AR-15 the next day from a licensed dealer to carry out the attack, and he is also reported to have admitted making statements about beheading ICE agents.
«Every day there are more assaults, more vehicle-ramming attacks, more attempts to kill our officers,» Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. «Now, we have an American citizen planning to kill ICE officers with Molotov cocktails and gun them down. It’s disturbing.»
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deploy pepper balls, tear gas, and flashbang grenades as hundreds of protesters march from Portland City Hall to an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, on Feb. 1, 2026. (Sean Bascom/Anadolu via Getty Images)
«Sanctuary politicians comparing ICE day-in and day-out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols have real world consequences. The men and women of ICE and CBP are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. They get up every morning to try and make our communities safer. Like everyone else, they just want to go home to their families at night. The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must end.»
The DHS statement comes the day after several House Democrats railed against ICE during a hearing with acting ICE Director Todd Lyons comparing ICE agents to Nazis and the Gestapo as they slammed the Trump administration over the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two anti-ICE activists killed during interactions opposing federal immigration authorities.
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Protesters, using whistles to alert neighborhoods to ICE activity, face off with Minneapolis police officers in Minneapolis, Minn., on Jan. 24, 2026. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)
DHS says there is an ongoing investigation into the Oregon arrest with ICE Homeland Security Investigations, and that Coleman is facing state charges on six counts of manufacturing a destructive device, and two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree assault.
Coleman is being held in the Columbia County jail and is listed as having a bail of $400,000.
ICE officers are facing a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them, according to DHS, along with an 8,000% increase in death threats.
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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, along with other federal law enforcement agencies, attend a pre-enforcement meeting in Chicago, Illinois, on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Getty Images)
As Democrats rally against ICE across the country, Congress has until Friday at midnight to fund DHS, with Democrats threatening to shut down the government if their demands for ICE reforms are not meant and as the days go by, the odds of doing so are becoming increasingly slim.
«I think they (Democrats) are using families as political weapons,» DHS Secretary Kristi Noem exclusively told Fox News Digital last week. «And this is a little bit different, because when it’s the whole government that they shut down, they’re not necessarily just attacking security.»
«This feels like a direct attack on the security of our country, our homeland. And it’s almost as though they’ve gotten so extreme, they don’t care if we’re out there on the front lines keeping our country safe from terrorists, keeping our country safe from murderers and rapists,» Noem added.
Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller and Emma Colton contributed to this report.
immigration,politics,homeland security,illegal immigrants
INTERNACIONAL
Iranian brutality: Nobel laureate fighting for life after barbaric assault at notorious prison
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The Norwegian Nobel Committee is calling on Iran to stop its physical abuse and life-threatening treatment of Nobel peace laureate Narges Mohammadi, who has been imprisoned since December.
The committee said it had received «credible reports» of «life-threatening mistreatment» of Mohammadi, an activist arrested by plain-clothes agents while peacefully attending the funeral of the late human rights lawyer and advocate Khosrow Alikordi.
Mohammadi has been beaten by wooden sticks and batons and dragged across the ground by her hair, tearing sections of her scalp and causing open wounds, the committee said.
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Ali and Kiana Rahmani, children of Narges Mohammadi, an imprisoned Iranian human rights activist, attend the Nobel Peace Prize 2023 award ceremony, where they accept the award on behalf of their mother at Oslo City Hall, Norway on Dec. 10, 2023. (NTB/Javad Parsa via REUTERS )
Furthermore, she was repeatedly kicked in the genitals and pelvic region, leaving her unable to sit or move without severe pain and raising serious concerns of bone fracture, it said.
«The Committee is horrified by these acts, and reiterates that Ms. Mohammadi’s imprisonment is arbitrary and unjust,» committee Chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said in a statement. «Her only ‘offence’ is the peaceful exercise of her fundamental rights – freedom of expression, association and assembly – in defence (sic) of women’s equality and human dignity.»
TOP IRANIAN GENERAL THREATENS TO ‘CUT OFF’ TRUMP’S HAND OVER POTENTIAL MILITARY STRIKES
Ali Rahmani, son of Narges Mohammadi, an imprisoned Iranian human rights activist, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2023, speaks after receiving the award on behalf of his mother at Oslo City Hall, Norway. (NTB/Fredrik Varfjell via REUTERS)
An Iranian prosecutor at the time of the arrest told reporters that Mohammadi made provocative remarks at the memorial ceremony in the northeastern city of Mashhad and encouraged those present «to chant norm‑breaking slogans» and «disturb the peace,» Reuters reported.
Mohammadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, has spent much of the last two decades in Iran’s infamous Evin prison.
The committee is calling on Tehran to release Mohammadi and guarantee her access to medical care.
The state tax building burned during Iran’s protests, on a street in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 19, 2026. (Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)
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«Mohammadi’s ordeal is yet another grim example of the brutal repression that has followed the mass protests in Iran, where countless women and men have risked their lives to demand freedom, equality and basic human rights,» it said.
iran,world politics,personal freedoms
INTERNACIONAL
Alejada de Estados Unidos y con Rusia en la mira, Europa dispara la producción de armamento
La industria militar europea vio con pánico el inicio de la guerra de Rusia contra Ucrania. Kiev quemaba en un día más obuses de artillería y munición de los que podían producir las fábricas europeas en un mes. Los arsenales europeos empezaron a vaciarse peligrosamente para sostener al esfuerzo militar europeo. Cuando Rusia atacó, Europa producía menos de 300.000 obuses de 155mm al año. Estados Unidos poco más de 170.000. Rusia disparaba a diario más de 15.000.
Cuatro años después la película es totalmente diferente gracias a una combinación de tres estrategias. Primero se pusieron en marcha fondos públicos que sirvieran de palanca para levantar inversión privada. El programa ASAP de la Comisión Europea, con 500 millones de euros, fue el germen. Los Estados miembros pusieron seguidamente 2.000 millones de euros más y la industria añadió 8.000 millones cuando los ministerios de Defensa empezaron a firmar contratos a largo plazo que aseguraba la venta de todo lo producido, para rellenar arsenales y para seguir ayudando a Ucrania.
La segunda pata fue la diversificación geográfica. Rheinmetall se expandió por el continente y ya tiene plantas en cinco países europeos: Alemania, España, Bulgaria, Hungría y Lituania. Además, desarrolla en Ucrania una fábrica conjunta con un socio empresarial ucraniano. KNDS fabrica ya en Francia, Italia y Letonia. Nammo en Noruega, Finlandia, Suecia y ultima la apertura de una fábrica en Dinamarca.
El tercer paso fue abrir el cuello de botella que frenaba el aumento de la fabricación de obuses. El problema no estaba en fabricar las carcasas metálicas, sino en rellenarlas de explosivos. KNDS usó 41 millones de euros del programa europeo para aumentar su producción de pólvora. Nammo triplicó esa capacidad en tres años en una fábrica sueca.
Europa producirá ya este año más de dos millones de obuses de artillería, más del doble que la industria estadounidense y sólo superada por una Rusia que tiene aportes sustanciales de Corea del Norte.
Para cuando arranque 2027, la producción europea llegará a 2,5 millones de obuses. Washington, en cambio, calculaba alcanzar 1,2 millones en 2025 pero se ha estancado en poco más de medio millón y ahora estima que necesitará todo 2026 para llegar al millón. Europa aumenta su capacidad militar industrial porque sabe que poco puede contar ya con Estados Unidos y que debe seguir armando a Ucrania y rellenar sus arsenales.
El cambio vino de la mano principalmente de unas pocas empresas: Rheinmetall, KNDS, BAE Systems y Nammo. Atraídas por los fondos nacionales y europeos, pero sobre todo por contratos a largo plazo que les aseguran ventas durante lo que queda de década, lanzaron una fuerte inversión en nuevas plantas y en nuevas líneas de fabricación.
El símbolo está en Unterlub, un pueblo de la Baja Sajonia alemana donde Rheinmetall inauguró la mayor fábrica de munición de Europa, construida en menos de 18 meses y con una inversión de más de 500 millones de euros. Sólo de esa fábrica podrán salir, trabajando en un solo turno, 350.000 obuses de artillería al año. Si la fábrica trabajara 24 horas al día triplicando turnos superaría el millón de obuses al año.
En menos de cuatro años los europeos han completado su mayor reconversión industrial militar desde el fin de la Guerra Fría, cuando redujeron rápidamente su producción militar porque no había comprador para tanta arma y tanta munición.
Mientras tanto, Estados Unidos se quedó atrás. En febrero de 2024, Washington dijo que en 2025 estaría fabricando 1,2 millones de obuses. Pero desde septiembre de 2024 su producción está estancada. Según los medios estadounidenses, el problema es que la certificación es más lenta que en Europa, pero sobre todo que la planta que General Dynamics debía poner a toda máquina en Mesquite (Texas) lleva un año de retrasos.
El cambio industrial tiene consecuencias que van más allá de los números de producción. Por primera desde 1945 los europeos estarían en situación de sostener una guerra convencional de alta intensidad con sus propias industrias. Además, Europa puede ahora suministrar a Ucrania casi todo lo que necesita en el plano militar, reduciendo esa dependencia de Estados Unidos. El 80% de la munición de artillería que dispara ahora Ucrania es europea.
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