In my “The New Monroe Doctrine” column on Friday, I mentioned that Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, is quickly becoming one of my new favorite world leaders. Even though it’s only been a few days since I wrote that, he’s grown on me even more. Javier Milei and Nayib Bukele may have some competition soon.
Noboa was actually born in the United States in Miami. While he grew up in Ecuador, he was also educated in the U.S. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business from New York University, briefly studied at Harvard, and earned two master’s degrees from Northwestern and George Washington University. On paper, some of this would normally be a turnoff for me, but the guy obviously learned something while he was there.
He has a business background, but he also comes from a wealthy family. His grandfather started a global banana business, and Noboa is the heir.
Noboa began his political career in Ecuador’s National Assembly in 2021. In the midst of a political crisis in 2023, he ran for president in snap elections and won in a runoff. In 2025, he ran for president again, and he was elected for his first full term. Have I mentioned that he only just turned 39 in November?
You may hear more about Noboa in the months to come in the media. You’ll probably see some left-wing dog whistle words and phrases like “authoritarian” and “human rights violations” in the MSM headlines, too. That’s because Noboa is tough on crime — it’s why he was elected. He’s even been called Ecuador’s Bukele.
He’s also very pro-Donald Trump and pro-United States. And he’s not afraid to deploy the country’s military to eradicate the organized crime that has turned Ecuador from one of the safest countries in the Western Hemisphere to one of the most dangerous because he knows drastic times call for drastic measures — all things leftists don’t like.
The truth is that Noboa inherited a mess, and it only got worse. Ecuador’s murder rate jumped 31.2% between 2024 and 2025, when it reached a record high of 50.9 per 100,000 people. You don’t solve that problem with a light-handed approach to crime.
Initially, he declared a state of internal armed conflict in January 2024. It was the first time in the country’s history it’d been done. He also labeled 22 criminal cartels and gangs as terrorist organizations. Then he declared a continual state of emergency in areas overrun with crime. He has also mentioned that many of these cartels and gangs have been trained by Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) agents. Again, you can’t combat that without going full force into the lion’s den. Terrorists don’t usually respond to polite suggestions about conducting terrorists activities.
This week, Ecuador announced that it was sending 75,000 soldiers and police officers to four crime-ridden provinces within the country: Guayas, El Oro, Los Rios, and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas. It has also enacted a curfew in those provinces. People are not allowed to leave their homes between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. for the next two weeks. The goal is to clear roads and keep civilians safe while hitting the cartels and their drug-trafficking routes head-on. On the first night, 253 people were arrested.
This may be Ecuador’s largest security operation in history. It’s actually reminiscent of Bukele’s initial widespread crackdown on gangs in El Salvador. With any luck, it will be just as successful. It’s also part of the “new phase” of joint operations with the United States that both countries announced earlier this month. U.S. special forces are providing intelligence and logistical support, while the Ecuadorian commando units conduct the actual raids. The result? A safer Western Hemisphere for all of us.
In an interview last week, Noboa said that he’s happy that “we finally have a United States government that is concerned about the hemisphere and is also concerned about the origin of crime, where the problem comes from.”
Both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem visited Ecuador in 2025 to talk security matters. Last week, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Ecuadorian Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, and Investment Luis Alberto Jaramillo signed a reciprocal trade agreement between our two countries. Of the agreement, Noboa said, “Ecuador had two paths: stay still or go seek better conditions. We chose the second.”
Noboa has been questioned by journalists about his involvement with the United States. As usual, there are undertones of “imperialism.” But he’s made it clear that this is about two sovereign nations coming together to eradicate a common problem.
“We are not a proxy of the United States, we are an ally, we are a partner and we are going to continue working together to move forward, to move forward for the country, to move forward for Ecuador. My sole reason for being president of the Republic is to improve the lives of Ecuadorians. That will always be my priority, and we hope for the support of the United States to help us move forward.”
Anyway, partnerships like this are why Donald Trump and Marco Rubio held the Shield of the Americas summit in Doral, Florida, earlier this month, where Noboa was a guest. Together, we’re going to make the Americas great — and safe — again. Initial reports show that it’s working.
With our support, Noboa will do great things for Ecuador. He’s definitely one to watch in the years to come.
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