Colombia and Ecuador were plunged into a fresh diplomatic crisis after President Gustavo Petro accused Quito of conducting aerial bombings on Colombian soil, claiming security forces discovered the charred remains of 27 people near the border, an allegation flatly rejected by Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa, who insisted his military was operating exclusively within his own country's borders.

Petro, speaking during a cabinet meeting late on March 16 before elaborating further the next day, said an explosive device believed to have been dropped from an aircraft had been found close to the border with Ecuador. "I didn't give that order," he wrote on X, distancing Colombian forces from the deaths while pointing the finger at Quito. He added that he possesses a recording he believes should be made public and that originated, he claimed, in Ecuador.

Noboa swiftly dismissed the accusations. "President Petro, your declarations are false, we are acting in our territory, not yours," the Ecuadorean leader wrote on X. He confirmed that Ecuadorean forces had struck locations serving as hideouts for narco-trafficking groups — characterising them as "mostly Colombian" fighters whom, he alleged, Bogotá had allowed to cross the border through negligence. "We will continue to clean up and rebuild Ecuador," he added.

The Ecuadorean government launched a broad anti-criminal offensive on the night of March 15, deploying forces against organised drug-smuggling gangs across four provinces and along the border, backed by international partners including the United States. Quito has not provided a public account of any specific operations at the border, and the Ecuadorean government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported remains.

Colombia's defence minister, retired General Pedro Sánchez, said a team of experts had been assembled to establish the origin of the device and carry out a controlled explosion. Petro subsequently shared footage from Colombian state television that purported to show one of the explosive devices, a cylindrical object with dark green colouring, partially obscured by foliage.

In a sign of how seriously Bogotá views the situation, Petro disclosed that he had called on US President Donald Trump to intervene. "I asked Trump: 'Take action.' I called the president of Ecuador, because we don't want to go to war," he said. Petro had previously raised the issue with Trump during a White House meeting in February, at which the US president reportedly agreed to contact Noboa.

The row lays bare the volatile intersection of two countries with deeply entwined roles in the global cocaine trade. Colombia remains the world's largest producer of cocaine, with the United Nations reporting ten consecutive years of rising production potential and nearly 253,000 hectares dedicated to coca cultivation. Ecuador's predicament is more recent but no less acute: sandwiched between Colombia and Peru, the world's two largest cocaine producers, it has become a critical transit hub for drugs bound for the United States and Europe, with around 70% of cocaine from both countries passing through Ecuadorean ports. Once regarded as an island of peace in Latin America, Ecuador has since seen its homicide rate soar to among the highest on the continent, a transformation that has shaped Noboa's hardline security agenda and deepened his frustration with what he regards as Bogotá's permissive approach to armed groups operating along the shared frontier.

The bilateral relationship has deteriorated sharply in recent months, driven by profound disagreements over security strategy. While Petro has pursued a policy of negotiating with armed groups, Noboa favours a more aggressive military approach to the drug-trafficking networks he accuses of spilling across the border from Colombia. Ecuador has been operating under a curfew across significant parts of its territory as it wages what Quito describes as an existential campaign against criminal gangs.

The security dispute has fuelled a parallel trade war. Ecuador raised tariffs on Colombian goods to 50% last month, accusing Bogotá of insufficient action against drug traffickers. Colombia responded in kind, imposing reciprocal duties and suspending electricity exports to its neighbour. Ecuador subsequently levied surcharges on Colombian crude transiting its pipeline infrastructure. Bilateral trade amounts to roughly $2.8bn annually, and both sides acknowledge the tariff escalation is weighing heavily on commerce, including supply chains for medical equipment.

Despite the public acrimony, some cross-border security co-operation continues at an operational level, with Colombian marine and special forces units reportedly conducting mirrored operations alongside Ecuadorean counterparts, co-ordinated in part with US intelligence support. Earlier this month, Ecuadorean and US forces jointly bombed a training camp belonging to the Border Commandos – a dissident faction of the demobilised FARC guerrillas – near the Colombian border, underscoring the complexity of a relationship that blends rivalry with reluctant collaboration.