At the beginning of this month, the right-wing newspaper The New York Times published an article in which it stated that Ecuador is a cocaine “superhighway” to the United States and Europe, while asserting that up to 70% of the world’s supply of that drug transits through its territory, thanks among other “advantages” to its position close to Colombia and Peru, the two largest producers, which has allowed criminal networks to consolidate in that country in recent years.
That South American nation, due to its status as a “bridge” or “superhighway” for drug trafficking across the Pacific, has also become one of the most dangerous in the world.
Until last September, according to data from the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Interior itself, 6,797 violent deaths were recorded, an increase of 36.35% compared to last year in the same period and this despite the fact that the far-right president, Daniel Noboa, has maintained several provinces under a regime of exception.
Until last November 10, a report from the Global Crime Index placed it as the fourth most dangerous country in the world, with an indicator of 7.48; while InSight Crime places that nation as the one with the highest number of violent deaths in Latin America.
Noboa’s Business. Long before the government of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, began the siege against Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea with the excuse of a supposed fight against drug trafficking that is not such, important details had already been revealed of how the family of the Ecuadorian president has been notoriously involved, through his companies, in the shipment of tons of cocaine to Europe.
Last April, the Colombian magazine Raya put some fingers on the sores by reporting that it was able to access documents from the Ecuadorian police, which showed that Noboa Trading, one of the companies of the family of the current president of Ecuador, was involved in the transport of more than half a ton of cocaine to several European countries since 2020.
They hid it among crates of bananas (cambur in our country) and although there were arrests in flagrante delicto, none of those arrested were ever prosecuted. It is worth pointing out that this is the wealthiest Ecuadorian family.
In this context, journalist Andrés Durán, one of those responsible for the investigation into these drug seizures, was forced to leave the country after receiving death threats and legal harassment from Daniel Noboa’s party, the National Democratic Action Movement (ADN).
Among other details that have been published, more than 700 kilos of cocaine were seized in the port of Naportec, Guayaquil, by the Ports and Airports Intelligence Unit (Uipa) of the National Police between 2020 and 2022, but all that was kept hidden because the company is owned by the Noboa family.
The only detainee, José Luis Rivera Baquerizo, would later be released through the efforts of lawyer Edgar José Lama Von Buchwald, advisor to Daniel Noboa when he was a parliamentarian and current head of the Ministry of Health.
The person who appears as the legal representative of the banana company Noboa Trading is none other than Roberto Ponce Noboa, cousin of the president of Ecuador.
In an interview with the aforementioned Raya magazine, journalist Andrés Durán expressed that “this is the first documented case in the history of Ecuador in which a presidential family is allegedly involved in cocaine trafficking. The Noboa family controls the entire chain of the banana export business, from planting and harvesting to transportation and private ports.” However, despite this and other evidence that has emerged, the Trump government says nothing.
The company exported bananas with drugs
In the televised debate between candidate Luisa González and her rival Daniel Noboa, the Citizen Revolution standard-bearer harshly criticized her rival on the issue of the revealed links of one of her family businesses to drug trafficking.
“Investigate what Noboa Trading is, where they export drugs in boxes of bananas from Mr. Daniel Noboa’s company to Croatia and Italy,” González directly accused Noboa during the discussion broadcast to the entire country on March 23, before the second round of the elections.
The president was elusive in his response: “No, I am not the owner, but there are members of my family in that company,” he tried to defend himself.
However, the legal records of Noboa Trading show that the Ecuadorian president has been linked to the company since he was shipping director of Noboa Corporation, which together with Noboa Group are the parents of the conglomerate that includes the company in which the tons of cocaine were seized between 2020 and 2022.
Noboa Trading is, in turn, property of Lanfranco Holding, a company that according to leaks from the Panama Papers has been registered since 2015 in the name of Daniel Noboa and his brother Juan Sebastián, transferred by their father Álvaro.
President Maduro denounced him before journalists
The President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, referred to the alleged links of the Noboa family with drug trafficking in a press conference he held on September 1 of this year.
“Daniel Noboa’s company, which is a banana exporting family, has been found to be a drug trafficker to Europe,” the Venezuelan president said at that time, in a meeting with international media correspondents, citing as sources, reports that were released by the European Union and the World Anti-Drug Organization.
The head of state denounced that this situation, revealed months ago, has been silenced by the government of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who, he asserted, protects rulers subordinate to his interests.
“They put cocaine in the bananas and the United States keeps quiet about that because they know all their secrets so they can be puppet rulers,” said the Venezuelan president.
“60% of the cocaine produced in Colombia goes to the US through Ecuador. Before it only left Colombian ports, now the Albanian mafia took political control of Ecuador,” said President Nicolás Maduro, pointing directly towards Noboa.
