A group of 20 progressive House Democrats is demanding answers from the Pentagon over allegations that joint US-Ecuador military operations in northern Ecuador involved serious human rights abuses, including the bombing of what lawmakers said appeared to be civilian facilities.
In a letter sent Wednesday to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the lawmakers called for an immediate suspension of the operations pending an investigation and questioned the legal authority behind the Trump administration’s deployment of US troops to Ecuador earlier this year.
The letter, led by Reps. Greg Casar of Texas, Jesús “Chuy” García of Illinois, and Sara Jacobs of California, cited “reports of serious human rights violations and the bombing of what appear to have been civilian facilities during joint US-Ecuador military operations conducted in northern Ecuador.”
The congressional challenge comes after President Donald Trump deployed US troops to Ecuador in March as part of a joint campaign targeting what the administration described as “narco-terrorists.” The Ecuador deployment unfolded alongside a broader expansion of Trump administration military operations abroad, including airstrikes in Iran and operations targeting boats allegedly involved in drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
The lawmakers demanded “an explanation of the administration’s legal justification for the involvement of US armed forces in these operations, which have not been authorized by Congress,” while also calling for the operations to be halted “until these incidents are fully investigated.”
The letter centered heavily on allegations tied to one operation that lawmakers said “appears to have been a civilian dairy and cattle farm with no known links to armed groups or drug trafficking.” According to the lawmakers, the allegations were based on reporting describing severe abuses committed before the site was bombed.
According to The New York Times, on March 3, “Ecuadorian military personnel interrogated and assaulted unarmed civilians, burned homes and infrastructure, and subjected detainees to torture before the site was aerially bombarded on March 6.”
The lawmakers did not accuse US troops directly of committing abuses. Instead, they questioned whether US military support, coordination, intelligence, or assistance may have contributed to operations involving Ecuadorian security forces accused of serious violations.
The letter raised concerns that continued US support for Ecuadorian security units implicated in abuse could violate the Leahy Laws, which prohibit US assistance to foreign security forces credibly implicated in gross human rights violations unless effective accountability measures are taken.
“If U.S. forces provide new or continued security assistance to units that engaged in acts such as torture, extrajudicial killings, or enforced disappearances, and there is no credible investigation or prosecution underway, this would constitute a violation of the Leahy Laws, which prohibit assistance to foreign security forces credibly implicated in gross human rights violations without effective steps to bring those responsible to justice,” the lawmakers wrote.
The lawmakers also questioned the broader direction of US relations with Ecuador under President Daniel Noboa, whose administration they described as increasingly authoritarian.
“Beyond these recent incidents, we are concerned that our military is deepening its ties with the government of Ecuador, even as it undergoes an alarming authoritarian and anti-democratic drift,” the Democrats wrote.
The letter accused Noboa’s administration of overseeing “the violent repression of Indigenous-led protests,” publicly threatening Ecuador’s Constitutional Court, and freezing “the bank accounts of civil society organizations.”
The lawmakers further wrote that Noboa’s allies “have also pursued questionable cases against his political opponents,” while Ecuadorians “have endured more than two years of a prolonged state of emergency, marked by the military’s domestic deployment to combat so-called ‘narco-terrorists.’”
The concerns outlined in the letter extended beyond allegations tied directly to the March operation. Lawmakers also cited investigative reporting involving Noboa’s family business and alleged links to illicit networks.
“With investigative reporting now linking President Noboa’s family business to drug trafficking and the same illicit networks he claims to be fighting, an independent and transparent investigation into these allegations is warranted,” the letter states.
The Trump administration has increasingly framed anti-drug operations in Latin America through militarized counterterrorism language. The Ecuador campaign was publicly presented as a joint effort against unidentified “designated terrorist organizations in Ecuador,” according to the lawmakers’ letter.
House Democrats argued that Congress has not authorized such military involvement and demanded clarification regarding the legal basis, scope, and nature of US participation in the operations. They requested information about whether US personnel played any role in planning, intelligence gathering, targeting assistance, logistical support, or operational coordination.
The lawmakers also requested details regarding the administration’s legal interpretation for deploying US armed forces in Ecuador without explicit congressional approval.
The letter’s release coincided with Noboa beginning a two-day trip to Washington, DC, where he was scheduled to meet with Vice President JD Vance and Organization of American States Secretary General Albert Ramdin.
The congressional effort was backed by multiple anti-war, human rights, and foreign policy organizations, including Amnesty International USA, Center for Civilians in Conflict, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Human Rights First, Latin American Working Group, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, StoptheDrugWar.org, Washington Office on Latin America, and Win Without War.
The involvement of those organizations underscored growing concern among human rights advocates regarding the expansion of US-backed security operations in Ecuador and the possibility that anti-drug campaigns could contribute to civilian harm and democratic erosion.
In addition to García, Casar, and Jacobs, the letter was signed by Reps. Joaquin Castro, Jasmine Crockett, Adelita Grijalva, Jonathan Jackson, Pramila Jayapal, Hank Johnson, Ro Khanna, Summer Lee, Jim McGovern, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Mark Pocan, Delia Ramirez, Jan Schakowsky, Rashida Tlaib, and Nydia Velázquez.
Several of the signatories have previously criticized unauthorized US military operations abroad and raised concerns regarding American support for foreign security forces accused of human rights abuses.
The lawmakers requested a response from the Pentagon by May 22.
As scrutiny over the Ecuador operations intensifies, the letter places new pressure on the Trump administration to publicly explain the extent of US military involvement and whether American support contributed to operations that lawmakers say may have targeted civilians and violated international human rights standards.
“The United States cannot continue to be complicit in abuses abroad. There must be accountability,” García said.
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