US designates Ecuador gang as terrorist group in Trump's Latin America security push

In Quito this week, the United States formally designated Ecuador's Los Tiguerones gang as a terrorist organization, elevating a narcotics-driven criminal network into the language of existential threat. Secretary of State Rubio's announcement, made during a tour of newly conservative Latin American governments, signals that Washington is no longer content to treat the region's drug violence as a law enforcement matter — it is now framing it as a war. The move raises an ancient question that force alone has rarely answered: whether overwhelming power dismantles the conditions that breed such n