Ecuador: An Unlikely Battleground to Secure America's Southern Border
By Todd Bensman on September 3, 2019
The South American country of Ecuador can be described as many things: a tourist mecca for its Galapagos Islands, the country that harbored WikiLeaks founder and fugitive Julian Assange in its London embassy for seven years, and soul-keeper of the vanquished Inca civilization.
But an important battleground in America's war over illegal immigration to the U.S. southern border? The answer is a resounding "of course."
For decades, especially the last one, Ecuador and its Mariscal Sucre International Airport near the capital city of Quito have served as an international human smuggling paradise, a primary landing zone into the Western Hemisphere for untold thousands of U.S.-bound "extra-continental" and "special interest alien" immigrants flying in from all of the world's trouble spots. From the Quito launch pad, immigrants stepping off international passenger jets from China, Africa, and the Middle East then set off on ground journeys to next-door Colombia, into Central America through the Darien Gap, north to Mexico, and finally to the U.S. border for illegal entries and asylum claims.
https://cis.org/Bensman/Ecuador-Unlikely-Battleground-Secure-Americas-Southern-Border
