The Ecuadorian Navy reported this Thursday that it has managed to locate the ten crew members who remained missing from the Ecuadorian vessel "Don Rufo," intercepted and sunk two days earlier by the United States Army, which justified the operation by considering that the ship acted as a "floating replenishment station that provided support to illicit drug trafficking operations in the eastern Pacific Ocean."
"As a result of the search actions carried out to determine the situation of the ten crew members (...) of the vessel 'Don Rufo,' their location and reception on board the BAE Atahualpa were achieved," the military institution stated in an official communiqué.
According to the Andean Navy, the located individuals are already on the mentioned naval unit and, once the ship arrives at port, they will be subjected to "the corresponding procedures by the competent authorities, in accordance with current regulations."
The communiqué emphasizes that "this result is achieved after the search and aeromaritime exploration actions developed continuously by the Ecuadorian Navy since September 8, through the coordinated deployment of naval and aerial means," and also anticipates that operations focused on "maritime security and the safeguarding of human life at sea" will continue in the area.
At the time of the intervention by U.S. forces, there were 16 people on board the "Don Rufo." Of them, ten —the now located— "moved away from the place of the intervention," as previously detailed by the Ecuadorian Navy when explaining the circumstances of the operation.
The sinking of the "Don Rufo" adds to five other vessels neutralized since August 28 by the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which has justified these actions by asserting that the ships had links to the criminal organization Los Choneros, considered the most powerful criminal gang in Ecuador.
These naval operations have generated intense media attention in recent days and have led journalists to ask U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the scope of these actions and the risk that fishermen unrelated to drug trafficking could have lost their lives as a consequence of them.
"Here no one intends to kill fishermen," affirmed the senior official in statements to the press during his visit to Ecuador, where he insisted that "the biggest risk that exists" is that criminal organizations "continue operating" because, he emphasized, "they are indeed killing."