Ecuador

Day 709 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

Russia called that move a "reckless" violation of the treaty, RIA reported.
Ecuador's government said last month it would accept an offer from Washington to exchange what it called "Ukrainian and Russian scrap metal" for advanced US equipment worth $200 million.

Ecuador on Monday announced the arrest of a wanted cocaine trafficker from neighboring Colombia, as President Daniel Noboa said his government's crackdown on gang violence was starting to bear fruit.

Carlos Arturo Landazuri Cortes, a "high-value target," was captured overnight after months of investigations and intelligence work, Ecuador's police chief Cesar Augusto Zapata said on X.

Police in violence-plagued Ecuador arrested 68 people Sunday who had attempted to take over a hospital in the country's southwest in the midst of a "war" between drug gangs and the security forces.

Foreign, interior and defense ministers of Andean countries will hold an urgent meeting this weekend to discuss the problem of cross-border drug crime that has plunged Ecuador into a security crisis, Peru's government said on Jan. 15.

Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otarola told reporters the meeting in Lima on Jan. 21 will focus on ways to confront transnational crime.

Archaeologists have discovered the largest and oldest network of pre-Hispanic cities ever found in the Amazon rainforest, revealing a 2,500-year-old lost civilization of farmers.

The vast site, which covers more than 1,000 square kilometers, was long hidden by the jungle in the Upano valley on the foothills of the Andes mountain range in eastern Ecuador.

Ecuador's armed forces were engaged in a brutal standoff with organized crime Thursday, deploying more than 22,400 soldiers to put down a campaign of terror waged by gangs that has claimed 16 lives.

In a harrowing turn of events, Ecuador finds itself in the throes of a declared "state of war" with drug cartels, marking the third consecutive day of a brutal campaign initiated by the criminal organizations. This violent response comes in the wake of a government crackdown on their illegal activities, as reported by AFP.

Walking fast, with their eyes alert and voices low, a few Ecuadorans flitted about fearfully Wednesday on city streets all but deserted amid an escalating conflict between the armed forces and violent drug gangs.

President Noboa stated that there are many organized criminal groups in the country, which he labeled as terrorist organizations, adding that he ordered the armed forces to carry out military operations to neutralize these groups.