Latin America Daily Security Brief

President Daniel Noboa's government announced on April 20 that Ecuador will impose nighttime curfews starting in May across nine of its 24 provinces, including Pichincha (Quito), Guayas (Guayaquil), Manabí, Esmeraldas, Sucumbíos, Santa Elena, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Los Ríos, and El Oro, plus targeted zones in Cotopaxi, Bolívar, and Cañar. The measure also suspends the right to home inviolability — meaning security forces can conduct warrantless entries during curfew hours.

Authorities recovered two mass graves with decomposed remains in the Coral neighborhood of Esmeraldas province during a weekend operation, according to Infobae. Esmeraldas is a primary theater for groups including Los Tiguerones, Los Choneros, and transnational trafficking networks fighting over Pacific coast drug corridors.

Hit-for-hire murders are rising in Quito specifically, driven by growing criminal sophistication, easy weapons access, and limited intelligence capacity to counter the trend, El País reported. The capital has historically been insulated from the worst coastal violence — that buffer is eroding.

Ecuador and the U.S. signed a new security cooperation memorandum that Interior Minister John Reimberg announced on April 20, covering information sharing to target transnational crime. The agreement follows a pattern of deepening U.S.-Ecuador operational ties, with American forces already participating in joint military operations in-country.

Trade friction with Colombia is compounding the security picture: both countries have moved toward 100% tariffs on each other's goods, driven by the ideological gap between Noboa and Colombian President Petro — a dispute that originated over security policy disagreements, according to El País.

FARC dissident drones killed three Colombian army soldiers in rural Ipiales, Nariño on April 20, according to multiple Colombian outlets including Noticias Caracol. The attack used explosive-laden drones — a method previously concentrated in Catatumbo but now confirmed in a separate southern department, signaling the technology is spreading across dissident fronts.

Colombian Air Force Operation Beta, executed the night of April 19 in rural El Tarra (Catatumbo), killed 12 ELN fighters including alias 'Yair,' described by Infobae as the ELN's primary drone instructor for the Northeastern War Front. Security forces also found underground bunkers the ELN used to store drone equipment, according to CAMBIO Colombia.

The Catatumbo humanitarian crisis has now displaced 22,570 people since January 2025, per the Unified Command Post (PMU). Three refugee shelters — at schools and stadiums — remain active. A new massacre in an urban zone was reported this week, marking a geographic expansion of violence from rural to populated areas.

Armed groups recruited 56 indigenous children in Cauca department in the first months of 2026, according to El País. The Estado Mayor Central — the largest FARC dissident faction — is responsible for nearly half the cases, followed by other dissident factions, the ELN, and the Clan del Golfo. FARC dissidents also entered a rural school in the region to conduct what they called 'propaganda,' prompting a presidential condemnation.

A new displacement emergency emerged in Briceño, Norte de Antioquia, where more than 100 people fled fighting between the Clan del Golfo, FARC Fronts 18 and 36, and the ELN's Héroes de Tarazá bloc — four distinct armed groups operating simultaneously in one municipality, per local reporting.

A shooting at the Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacán killed two people on April 20, with Mexican authorities identifying a suspect and deploying the Guardia Nacional to secure the site. The attack drew immediate international attention — Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister called it a 'terrible act of armed violence' — and it lands 51 days before Mexico hosts the 2026 FIFA World Cup opener at the Estadio Azteca.

Two U.S. embassy instructor officials died in a vehicle accident in Chihuahua state on April 20 while returning from a joint operation, along with two Mexican Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) agents. President Sheinbaum said the operation was coordinated by local government and stated she was not informed in advance; Mexico's attorney general confirmed the deaths and opened an investigation into whether national security protocols were violated.

The U.S. State Department imposed visa restrictions on 75 individuals linked to the Sinaloa Cartel on April 20, citing fentanyl trafficking ties. The action targets associates rather than top leadership and is framed as part of the administration's broader 'narco-terrorist' designation campaign against Mexican cartels.

Eleven municipal police officers linked to post-El Mencho violence — including roadblocks and vehicle burnings across Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato, Colima, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, and Sinaloa — remain at large, per reporting from Infobae. One of the fugitives was the director of public security for a municipality whose mayor was elected via a PAN-PRI-PRD alliance in 2024, suggesting deep cartel infiltration of municipal institutions. (Context: El Mencho was killed in a February operation; the retaliatory wave is weeks old but fugitive officers are a current, live issue.)

Venezuela's transitional government is in talks with Siemens and GE over the country's power infrastructure crisis, UPI reported on April 20. The focus is on Zulia state, a key oil-producing region whose grid failures have directly constrained hydrocarbon output.

InSight Crime published an analysis today of Venezuela's new mining law, finding it formally opens the gold sector to foreign investment but does nothing to dismantle the criminal and military networks that have controlled production for years. The law provides legal cover for foreign capital without addressing who actually controls mines on the ground.

A U.S.-Venezuela oil supply deal — reportedly 50 million barrels — is moving forward under the transitional government, with sanctions on the oil trade lifted to enable purchases. PDVSA produced 1.062 million barrels per day in February; opposition leader María Corina Machado has told investors the country could reach 5 mbpd under a fully private model, a figure she presented at CERAWeek in March.

Political prisoners continue to be released under the transitional government, but key Maduro-era loyalists remain embedded in the administration, generating concern among analysts about whether the democratic transition is structural or cosmetic.

The U.S. asked Brazil's security attaché to leave the country, Reuters reported on April 20. The expulsion follows ICE's brief detention last week of Alexandre Ramagem — Brazil's former intelligence chief, convicted for his role in plotting a coup with ex-President Bolsonaro and currently in exile — who is a political ally of Donald Trump.

President Lula publicly criticized U.S. military operations in the Middle East and ongoing conflicts at a recent event, positioning Brazil in opposition to current U.S. foreign policy. The attaché expulsion suggests Washington is reciprocating the political friction through security channels.

Brazil's Federal Police flagged border cities with Peru and Bolivia as primary narcotics entry points for Amazonian drug routes, Folha de S.Paulo reported April 20. Authorities noted operational integration with state forces and limited joint operations with Peruvian and Bolivian counterparts to disrupt these corridors.

El Salvador opened mass trial proceedings on April 21 for approximately 490 alleged MS-13 members, including national leadership, street-level commanders, program coordinators, and founders, accused collectively of 29,000 murders and over 47,000 total crimes, per ABC News and multiple regional outlets.

Human rights organizations have raised due process concerns about the mass trial model, noting that many defendants have been held for years without charge or family contact under Bukele's state of exception. The trial is being watched closely across the region as a test of whether the Bukele security model survives legal scrutiny at scale.

Chile and the United States signed two agreements in Santiago on April 20: a security cooperation pact targeting narcotrafficking, cybercrime, and money laundering, backed by a $1 million U.S. donation; and a separate critical minerals partnership. The security deal includes the deployment of at least one FBI agent embedded with Chilean investigators, per Security Minister Carolina Tohá.

The dual agreement signals Chile is positioning itself with Washington on both the security and strategic minerals fronts simultaneously — a deliberate political and economic alignment that gives the Boric government room to attract investment while demonstrating anti-crime credentials.

Cuba's power and food crisis continues to deepen, driven by the U.S. oil blockade following the January 2026 military operation in Venezuela that removed Maduro. The Week characterized the situation as pushing the regime 'to the brink of collapse.'

The Dominican Republic is reporting a rice surplus and food security stability in sharp contrast to Cuba's shortages, a juxtaposition that Caribbean analysts are noting as an indicator of Cuban regime vulnerability. The 2026 Cuban crisis Wikipedia entry documents Díaz-Canel releasing 51 political prisoners in March as part of what he called 'a new chapter in national political life' — likely a concession tied to economic desperation.

Peru reauthorized the environmental permit for Southern Copper's $1.8 billion Tía María copper project on April 18, reversing an earlier forced review. The project has a long history of community opposition in Arequipa, and the reauthorization during an active election cycle adds political risk.

Chinese state-owned Chinalco announced a $700 million, three-year expansion plan for its Toromocho mine in Peru — the latest in a series of major Chinese mining commitments in the country, reinforcing China's dominant position in Peru's copper sector.

Nicaragua was excluded from CENTAM Guardian 2026, a U.S. Southern Command exercise held in El Salvador that brought together over 1,200 troops from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and the United States. Nicaragua's isolation from U.S.-led regional security frameworks is now near-total, per Infobae.

Costa Rica's coast guard, with U.S. INL support, interdicted 1.9 metric tons of cocaine in a recent operation; three suspects face international drug trafficking charges from Costa Rican prosecutors. The operation reflects deepening U.S.-Costa Rica counternarcotics cooperation on Pacific and Caribbean sea lanes.

Ninety-two percent of migrants apprehended at the U.S. border in March 2026 were nationals of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, according to Centroamérica360. The concentration underscores that Central American migration pressure has not eased despite U.S. enforcement escalation.

Uruguay's new government is preparing a targeted security intervention program for high-homicide, low-income neighborhoods, with Secretary Alejandro Sánchez emphasizing the zones were selected based on crime data and socioeconomic indicators — not political calculus. The plan is evidence-based in design but will face implementation challenges in a country where drug transit through Montevideo's port is fueling local gang violence.

Uruguay presented the region's lowest country-risk rating and historically low inflation to the IMF's Financial and Monetary Committee, according to reporting from April 21. The economic stability stands in contrast to the security degradation in Montevideo's peripheral neighborhoods.