Guayaquil, Ecuador, Jan 21 (EFE). – President Daniel Noboa announced Wednesday that Ecuador will apply «a 30% security tax” to imports from Colombia, due to «the lack of reciprocity and firm action» by the neighboring country in the fight against drug trafficking.
«We have made real efforts to cooperate with Colombia, even with a trade deficit that exceeds 1 billion dollars annually. But while we have insisted on dialogue, our military continues to face criminal groups linked to drug trafficking on the border without any cooperation,» he said on his social media account.
«Therefore, in the absence of reciprocity and firm action, Ecuador will apply a 30% security tax on imports from Colombia starting February 1,» he added.
The president indicated that the measure will remain in place until there is a commitment from Colombia «to jointly confront drug trafficking and illegal mining on the border, with the same seriousness and determination that Ecuador is assuming today.»
Ecuadorian security forces frequently seize drug shipments coming from Colombia or areas bordering that country.
One of the latest seizures took place on Jan. 6, when the army found 2.2 tons in the Amazonian province of Sucumbíos, which borders the departments of Nariño and Putumayo.
Soldiers suspect that the drugs belonged to the Frontier Comands (Comandos de la Frontera,) a dissident group of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group.
The Ecuadorian government also attributed the group with the murder of 11 soldiers on May 9 in an ambush while conducting an operation against illegal mining in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
After that attack, Noboa classified them as «organized armed groups» along with the Oliver Sinisterra Front and the Southern Community Dissidents, and incorporated them as enemies in the «internal armed conflict» that he declared in Ecuador in January 2024 due to the rise of criminal gangs in the country.
Additionally, on December 24, the Ecuadorian government announced that it would maintain only one border crossing with Colombia and Peru, citing «national security criteria aimed at combating organized crime.»
Surrounded by these countries, which are the world’s two largest cocaine producers, and with several ports on its coasts and a dollarized economy, Ecuador has in recent years become an important transit point for the trafficking of this drug, which is mainly destined for Europe and North America.
In 2025, Ecuador seized 214.53 tons of drugs, 80 fewer than in 2024, when a record 294.61 tons were seized, according to official data. EFE cbs/mcd
