US and European armies should join our war on gangs, Ecuador president tells BBC

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa has told the BBC he wants US, European and Brazilian armies to join his "war" against criminal drug gangs in the country.

He also said he wanted the US President Donald Trump to designate Ecuadorean gangs as terrorists, as he has done with some Mexican and Venezuelan cartels.

Mr Noboa is hoping to get re-elected in April, and has defined his presidency through a military crackdown on criminal gangs. While murders have fallen slightly, violence remains incredibly high, largely fuelled by drug gangs fighting to control cocaine trafficking routes to places like the US and Europe. 781 homicides were recorded in Ecuador in January alone.

South America Correspondent Ione Wells interviewed him at the presidential palace in Quito.

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