Trump’s Next War: Narco-Terrorism and America’s Security

Written By B.J. Dichter, Posted on November 18, 2025

Is Diana Salazar’s Crusade Why a US Naval Fleet Sits off Venezuela’s Coast?

Sometimes I wish more people in The United States of America and Canada could appreciate how significant Latin America is to their national security and economic stability. An extremely complex political landscape paired with the convergence of transnational organized crime and terrorism poses a serious threat to regional stability across most of the Western Hemisphere. Once regarded as an “island of peace,” Ecuador has become a focal point of this crisis, struggling with rampant drug trafficking, entrenched corruption, and escalating violence that mirrors broader patterns across the continent.

Ecuador’s fight was led by Diana Salazar Méndez, the country’s Attorney General until May 2025, whose investigations exposed the deep-rooted influence of “narcopolitics.” Her work revealed connections between local narco-gangs and international terrorist groups such as Hezbollah which seems to have drawn the attention of the Trump administration.

Drawing on investigations into Ecuador’s Metástasis case and historical precedents, this article shows how criminal networks fund terrorism through narco-related activities, creating major challenges for U.S. and regional policy. These operations are not limited to Venezuela or groups like Tren de Agua; the scale of narco-terrorism is vast and may explain a shift in U.S. foreign policy, signalled by a drone strike on a smuggling boat bound for the United States and reinforced by a 2025 speech from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth at Quantico. These events are not unfolding in isolation.

Ecuador’s Descent into Chaos: The Metástasis Operation

Ecuador’s security crisis has worsened in recent years, fuelled by narco-driven corruption. The turning point came in December 2023 with the launch of Caso Metástasis, the country’s largest anti-corruption and anti-drug trafficking operation. Attorney General Diana Salazar led the probe, exposing a “criminal structure” that had infiltrated judges, prosecutors, prison officials, and police. More than 900 officers carried out 75 raids, leading to over 30 arrests, including Judiciary Council president Wilman Terán and former prisons director Pablo Ramírez.

The investigation began after the October 2022 prison murder of Leandro Norero, a notorious drug lord and founder of the Chone Killers gang. Evidence from Norero’s cellphone showed bribes and favours exchanged for judicial protection, allowing gangs to operate with impunity.

This corruption ignited Ecuador’s gang wars, as groups like Los Choneros and Los Lobos both designated as terrorist organisations by the United States and Ecuador staged prison takeovers, attacked media outlets, and triggered hostage crises.

President Daniel Noboa declared a “state of war” against Ecuador’s cartels in January 2024 after the escape of Los Choneros leader José Adolfo Macías, known as “Fito,” triggered nationwide violence.

The Metástasis probe soon expanded into related cases, including the 2023 assassination of presidential candidate and anti-corruption journalist Fernando Villavicencio. In September 2024, prosecutors charged former Interior Minister José Serrano and others with orchestrating the killing, linking it to the Los Lobos gang and wider corruption networks.

By 2025, convictions were mounting: 20 people were sentenced in November 2024, including Judiciary Council president Wilman Terán, and another 10 in March 2025, among them assembly members and judicial officials. These cases highlight how narco gangs have penetrated state institutions, erasing the line between organised crime and terrorism.

Diana Salazar: A Trailblazer Against Narco-Politics

Diana Salazar Méndez emerged as a symbol of resilience amid Ecuador’s turmoil. Appointed in 2019 as the country’s first Black female Attorney General, she led transformative investigations despite constant threats. Born in Ibarra and raised by a single mother, Salazar began her career as an assistant prosecutor at 20 while studying law. By 2011, she was handling organised crime cases, earning the nickname the “Ecuadorian Jeanine Pirro” type figure

Salazar’s accomplishments are far-reaching. In 2015, she led the “FIFA Gate” investigation, securing a 10-year sentence for former Ecuadorian football chief Luis Chiriboga on money-laundering charges. Two years later, she prosecuted former Vice-President Jorge Glas for taking $13.5 million in bribes from Odebrecht, winning a six-year prison term.

In 2020, her work helped deliver an eight-year corruption sentence in absentia against former President Rafael Correa. The pinnacle of her career has been Metástasis, where her confidential approach prevented leaks and exposed the systemic infiltration of state institutions by drug traffickers. In 2021, the U.S. State Department honoured her with its Anti-Corruption Champions Award.

Despite constant death threats, often wearing a bulletproof vest and moving under heavy security, Salazar remains undeterred. A 2025 profile called her “the bravest woman in Latin America,” citing routine dangers such as being tailed by relatives of drug lords under investigation. While some critics accuse her of politicisation, experts have praised her integrity amid Ecuador’s chaos. Her work has dismantled networks tied to Mexican cartels such as CJNG (Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación), though violence and challenges persist.

Hezbollah’s Shadow in Latin America: Narco-Terrorism Connections

While Ecuador’s crisis is rooted in local gangs, broader regional patterns show clear links to international terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shiite militia. Hezbollah’s presence in Latin America stretches back decades, using diaspora communities to raise funds through drug trafficking, money laundering, and contraband.

A 2009 analysis traced Iran’s deeper push into the region beginning in 2005 under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, when Tehran forged an “anti-American axis” with leftist leaders such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez.

Hezbollah’s narco-terrorism ties stretch across the Tri-Border Area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, as well as Venezuela. In 2005, Ecuador dismantled a cocaine ring led by Lebanese-Ecuadorian Rady Zaiter that funnelled profits to Hezbollah. Three years later, Colombian authorities broke up a money-laundering scheme linked to the group’s drug and arms trafficking.

A 2017 exposé on Project Cassandra, a U.S. DEA initiative, revealed Hezbollah’s “Business Affairs Component” was smuggling cocaine from Latin America to the United States through cartels such as Los Zetas, laundering billions each year. Senior figures like Abdallah Safieddine, Hezbollah’s envoy to Iran, oversaw these networks with the help of Venezuelan officials, including Tareck El Aissami, in drug-weapons conspiracies.

The Obama administration allegedly slowed Project Cassandra in order to secure the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, allowing Hezbollah operatives such as Ali Fayad to evade justice. By 2025, RAND reports noted Hezbollah’s illicit financing and violent operations continued, bolstered by Iran’s diplomatic expansion into countries such as Bolivia and Nicaragua.

A UNICRI study underscored the crime-terror nexus, where terrorists rely on drug trafficking for funding and criminal groups adopt terrorist tactics. In Ecuador, direct Hezbollah ties to Metástasis have not been found, but vulnerabilities in ports and borders could enable such alliances, as seen in neighbouring states.

Historical cases highlight the group’s reach. The 1992 Israeli Embassy and 1994 AMIA bombings in Argentina were attributed to Hezbollah. Years later, prosecutor Alberto Nisman who accused then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of conspiring with Iran and Hezbollah operatives to cover up the AMIA attack was found dead under suspicious circumstances just before his testimony against Kirchner was scheduled, underscoring the group’s violent capabilities and political connections. Many speculate these events became a catalyst for change within the country that led to the election of libertarian president Javier Milei and implementation of the most significant economic and security reforms in Argentinas history.

In Venezuela, “Hezbollah América Latina” surfaced in 2006, attempting bombings while aligning with anti-U.S. movements. These networks generated funds for Hezbollahs currently fractured global operations, including in Syria, where the group profits from trafficking arms into Lebanon.

Implications and the Path Forward

The nexus between narco gangs and groups like Hezbollah underscores a hybrid threat where crime funds terrorism and erodes state sovereignty. In Ecuador, Salazar’s investigations secured convictions and exposed deep infiltration, yet the threats persist, forcing her to step down in May 2025. Regionally, reports from RAND and UNICRI warn that U.S. policy must adapt, focusing on stronger cooperation and tougher action against illicit financing.

Salazar’s legacy stands as proof that individual resolve can challenge entrenched corruption. Yet without sustained international support, Latin America’s crime-terror nexus risks escalating, threatening global security. As Ecuador rebuilds, her accomplishments are a reminder that justice though perilous, is indispensable.

All of this leads to the current state of geopolitics in the Western Hemisphere. Americans and Canadians often trivialise the severity of the crisis with slogans such as “The War on Drugs didn’t work” or “The War on Terror was a failure.”What this framing overlooks is that it is one war: a global narco-terrorism campaign targeting the West. Wedge issues such as the defamation of Israel by Islamist organisations or political entryism by Islamist figures like Mamdani in New York; are strategic moves in that broader conflict, a war the West is currently losing. Perhaps that is why a naval fleet sits off the coast of Venezuela. As with cancer, the only effective treatment is to cut out the tumour at its source. Thankfully, there are figures like Diana Salazar who reject cowardly slogans and confront the threat head-on.