A prosecutor looking into US drone strikes on Ecuadorian fishing boats was shot dead, a dark turn in a US anti-drug campaign that reporting says is killing poor fishermen and torturing survivors.

• Alexandra Bravo was investigating three US strikes on boats off Ecuador and survivor claims of torture and kidnapping when a gunman killed her and her sister; her police guards were absent.
• Survivors say US forces in Coast Guard-style uniforms held them for over a week, tortured them, then dumped them in El Salvador — backed by injuries, thermal imagery, and vessel tracking showing a Coast Guard ship going dark.
• Bravo had just been pulled off the case and pressured to treat the deaths as simple disappearances before she was killed.
• Ecuador's right-wing president Daniel Noboa has tied himself closely to Trump and the "Southern Spear" strike operation.
• The US denies everything, but a DEA report says cocaine traffic has not slowed at all, and most victims appear to be poor fishermen, not drug kingpins.

Outlook: Expect more pressure from Washington and Ecuador to bury the case, with families' lawsuits and outlets like Drop Site the main check on the story.