SALINAS, Ecuador – Kentucky Army National Guard Soldiers in the 940th Military Police Company participated last month in Exercise EL GATO, or Ecuador Liaison Guard Annual Training Operation, with members of Ecuador’s army, navy and air force for combined training during the 30th anniversary of the Kentucky-Ecuador partnership.
The Department of War National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program, or SPP, connects each state’s National Guard with partner nations to build enduring military-to-military relationships, strengthen interoperability and support broader security cooperation objectives. Kentucky’s partnership with Ecuador began in 1996, creating a long-term relationship built through exchanges, training events and leader engagements between Kentucky Guardsmen and Ecuadorian forces.
This exercise, held May 10-19, strengthened relationships by moving from small-scale subject-matter expert information exchanges to combined unit training.
For U.S. Army Capt. Demitri Ray, commander of the 940th, that shift was central to the exercise.
“With the outlook to strengthen that partnership, we do this because we want to bring not just 10 or 12 people down on an SPP mission,” Ray said. “We want to get to the point where it’s an Ecuadorian unit and a Kentucky National Guard unit training together.”
The training began with an opening ceremony, where Soldiers of the 940th met their Ecuadorian counterparts before breaking into platoon-level training groups. Each platoon conducted training exchanges that began with an overview of military policing fundamentals, then covered interpersonal communication, conflict de-escalation, search and apprehension procedures and riot suppression movements and formations. Kentucky Soldiers and Ecuadorian service members compared techniques and discussed how each force approaches similar missions.
During the culminating exercise, Ecuadorian forces integrated with military police Soldiers from the 940th and worked together to defend a simulated official building from a riot. The scenario required the combined teams to apply the communication, de-escalation, movement and crowd-control techniques they had practiced throughout the exercise.
The exercise was tied to readiness requirements for the National Guard Reaction Force, or NGRF, mission.
“The MP battalion has been tasked with the NGRF mission for the Guard, and every unit is responsible for recertifying and keeping their Soldiers to standard in those tasks that we learned during the NGRF academy,” Ray said. “We came down here to maintain certification on those tasks and to conduct hard, intense training with our partners that would inspire that partnership.”
Changing the setting increased the value of the training. Rather than conducting annual training at a familiar stateside location, Soldiers operated in a foreign country, working through language barriers and cultural differences to integrate with partner forces in real time.
The experience of training in a foreign country helped make the reality of their deployment mission tangible for his Soldiers, Ray said.
“When you actually put boots on the ground in another country, it gives them confidence that we can actually deploy and conduct an operation,” Ray said.
For Sgt. Aide Figueroa, a clerk for the Kentucky National Guard’s Joint Force Headquarters G-3 (Operations) section who joined the exercise after supporting a previous SPP engagement in Kentucky, the mission was about more than an exchange of information. Figueroa grew up speaking Spanish as her first language and helped bridge the cultural gap between Kentucky Soldiers and their Ecuadorian counterparts.
“When I say communicate, it’s not just words,” Figueroa said. “It’s tone, facial expressions, body movements. All that helps understand what someone’s trying to say to the other person.”
Figueroa said one of the most meaningful moments came during riot control training, when Kentucky Soldiers demonstrated techniques and Ecuadorian troops compared them with their own methods.
“They were trying to communicate, compare and contrast,” Figueroa said. “All of us learned from each other the different techniques we used for riot control.”
Ray also expressed how critical the unit’s bilingual Soldiers were to the exercise.
“When we first came, I was wondering if we were going to be able to do this without interpreters,” Ray said. “But our bilingual Soldiers impressed me so much that it’s changed my outlook on it. I think it worked out better than having private professional interpreters because those Soldiers are with us 24/7, and they understand the training.”
For Figueroa, the shared language created an immediate connection.
“When you speak the same language, it’s as if you already know them,” Figueroa said. “It’s like distant family.”
Ray said bringing a full unit to Ecuador, rather than a small delegation, changes what the partnership can become. Future exercises could expand beyond Salinas, he said, taking advantage of Ecuador’s varied terrain, including the Amazon rainforest and highlands. The precedent could also open the door for larger Ecuadorian units to train in Kentucky.
The 940th did not simply complete annual training in Ecuador; it created a process that future units can follow, paving the way for expanded, joint exercises involving larger elements from both nations.