Colombian and Ecuadorian merchants and truckers protest escalating trade war between both nations

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Colombian and Ecuadorian truckers and merchants gathered at a border crossing Tuesday to protest an escalating trade war between both South American countries.

Protesters called for their governments to eliminate 30% tariffs on dozens of goods, warning the levies will hurt the economy of border provinces and affect energy companies on both sides of the border.

Tariffs “generate crises, they don’t help the economy,” said Carlos Bastidas, president of an Ecuadorian transportation workers association. “With this protest we are hoping that both presidents eliminate those measures” and establish mechanisms for dialogue, he added.

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa last month announced 30% tariffs on Colombian goods, citing concerns that Bogota has failed to sufficiently curb the flow of cocaine across their shared border.

Noboa, a conservative who has sought to deepen ties with the Trump administration, described the tariffs as a “security tax,” and wrote on social platform X that they would be in place until Colombia took “firm actions” to fight drug cartels.

Colombia countered by imposing 30% tariffs on dozens of Ecuadorian goods — including rice and car parts — and said it would stop selling electricity to its neighbor. Ecuador relies heavily on hydroelectric power and suffered from serious power outages in 2024. Reciprocal tariffs took effect on Feb. 1.

Despite their shared border, neither country is each other's main trading partner, and both produce similar goods, including coffee, flowers, bananas and oil.

Trade between both countries was worth approximately $2.3 billion last year, according to Colombia’s statistics agency, with Colombia sending about $1.7 billion worth of goods to Ecuador, a nation that has about one third of Colombia’s population.

However, trade between both countries is significant for the economies of cities along the border.

On Tuesday, Edison Mena, president of a Colombian truckers association in the border city of Ipiales, said that 38% of his city’s economy depends on commerce with Ecuador.

Critics of Noboa have argued that the 38-year-old president launched the trade war with Colombia to cover up his own government's shortcomings.

Noboa's tariffs announcement came the same week Ecuador’s Interior Ministry published crime stats for the country indicating it had a homicide rate of 50 murders per 100,000 residents in 2025 — the highest in the nation’s recent history.

Ecuador’s homicide rate has quintupled since 2020, as drug gangs from Mexico, Colombia and further afield, fight for control of the nation’s ports. The once peaceful South American nation has become a major transit point for cocaine produced in Colombia and Peru.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, left, and Colombian President Gustavo Petro attend a decoration ceremony for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the presidential palace in Panama City, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

For more than a decade, loyal viewers of NBC’s “Today” show have come to know Nancy Guthrie, the beloved mother of longtime host Savannah Guthrie.

“She’s lived a life of integrity and loyalty,” Savannah Guthrie said four years ago, beaming as she paid tribute to her mom on her 80th birthday.

“She’s a truth teller, whether you really want to hear the truth or not,” Guthrie said, calling her mom an inspiration and a woman of great of faith.

On Tuesday, Savannah Guthrie asked for prayers to help find her 84-year-old mother after authorities said they believe she was taken against her will over the weekend from the Tucson, Arizona, home where she lives alone.

Authorities don’t believe the abduction was part of a robbery or kidnapping-for-ransom plot, according to a person familiar with the investigation, who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the case and spoke to the AP on condition of an anonymity.

Her disappearance has shaken NBC’s flagship morning show, where Nancy Guthrie made occasional appearances. She once took part in a cooking demonstration and has shown up on the set to surprise her daughter.

“For all of us who’ve gotten to know her and love her, it is personal,” an emotional Jenna Bush Hager, one of the show’s hosts said during Tuesday’s broadcast.

Savannah Guthrie, who was not at the anchor’s desk Tuesday, has described her mom over the years as adventurous, curious and selfless.

“She has met unthinkable challenges in her life with grit, without self-pity, with determination and always, always with unshakeable faith,” Savannah Guthrie said in 2022.

She credited her mom with holding their family together after her father died of a heart attack at age 49, when Savannah Guthrie — the youngest of three siblings — was just 16.

“When my dad died, our family just hung onto each other for dear life because it was such a shock. We were just trying to figure out how to become a family of four when we’d always been a family of five,” she said on “Today” in 2017.

The loss of her father, a man Savannah Guthrie described as having a big personality and unshakeable integrity, brought the family closer.

Both daughters decided to live at home during college and made sure that their mother wasn't alone on weekends, Savannah Guthrie said.

“My mom did such a unique and amazing job to create this foundation for us,” Savannah's older sister Annie said during an appearance on ”Today" nearly a decade ago.

Associated Press reporter Mike Balsamo reported from Washington.

This image provided by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, on Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, shows a missing person alert for Nancy Guthrie. (Pima County Sheriff’s Department via AP)

/// Neighbors of Nancy Guthrie, the daughter of "Today" host Savannah Guthrie, show support for the family in metro Tucson, Ariz., on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, as the search continues to find Nancy who was reported missing. (AP Photo/Sejal Govindarao)