US militarisation of Pacific fisheries: How neoliberal trade wars and colonial legacies sink Indigenous livelihoods
Original framing: “US strikes on Ecuadorian fishing boats raise humanitarian concerns but Trump admin not wavering” — The Guardian - World
The voices of Ecuadorian fishers are reduced to victims in this narrative, but their resistance is a form of *decolonial praxis*. The *Confederación Nacional de Pescadores Artesanales* (CONAP) has documented how US patrols use psychological warfare, including threats of indefinite detention, to break collective bargaining power. Women fishers, who make up 30% of the workforce but are excluded from enforcement dialogues, report increased sexual violence during patrols—a pattern also seen in the *Philippine* and *Indonesian* fisheries. The *Afro-Ecuadorian* fishing communities of *Esmeraldas*, who face triple discrimination as Black, Indigenous, and poor, are entirely absent from these discussions, despite being the most affected.
This crisis is not an isolated clash of sovereignty but a symptom of a deeper systemic failure: the imposition of neoliberal economic violence onto Indigenous and artisanal communities under the guise of 'law enforcement.
' The US’s refusal to waver reflects a colonial mindset where the Global South’s resources—whether oil, minerals, or fish—are to be controlled by force, with local populations treated as obstacles rather than stewards. Historical patterns, from the *Tuna Wars* to the *Cod Wars*, show that such enforcement actions are not about ecology but about protecting industrial interests, while Indigenous knowledge systems offer viable alternatives rooted in reciprocity and sustainability. The trickster dimension reveals the absurdity of a system that claims to 'save the ocean' while sinking those who have lived in harmony with it for generations. Solutions must therefore centre Indigenous autonomy, economic reparations, and demilitarised dialogues—shifting from extraction to restoration, from control to collaboration.