Why did US launch military operations in Ecuador? Here's what we know

The United States' latest military operations in Ecuador mark an embrace of past American strategies fighting drug traffickers in Latin America.

U.S. Southern Command on March 3 said Ecuadorian and American military forces launched operations in Ecuador against “designated terrorist organizations." Ecuadorian officials on March 4 confirmed the joint operations.

However, both Ecuador and the United States haven’t specified who they’re targeting, locations of operations, or the scope of military actions.

As details emerge, here is what to know about operations in Ecuador.

“The Ecuadorian people, along with other citizens across the region, have experienced the violence and corrosive consequences of narco-terrorism up close and in their neighborhoods,” Gen. Francis L. Donovan, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said in a March 4 statement. “The time is now for our partners in the Western Hemisphere to take decisive action against this scourge with the assurance that SOUTHCOM has their back.”