The Pentagon has announced U.S. Special Forces are now in Ecuador to conduct joint military operations with Ecuadorian commandos to reportedly target suspected drug traffickers. The head of U.S. Southern Command and the top commander of U.S. Special Forces in Latin America met with Ecuador’s right-wing President Daniel Noboa in Quito on Monday. Last year, Noboa proposed a constitutional change to allow the U.S. to operate a military base in Ecuador, but voters rejected the proposal. The deployment of U.S. troops to Ecuador marks a new front in the Trump administration’s so-called Operation Southern Spear. Since September, the U.S. has blown up at least 44 boats in the region, killing at least 150 people. Without offering proof, the Trump administration has claimed all of the targets were drug traffickers.