CARACAS, January 23. /TASS/. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has warned his Ecuadorian counterpart, Daniel Noboa, against seeking US assistance in stabilizing the situation in the unrest-riven country.

"I am addressing President Noboa with great respect: <…> don’t open your country’s doors to the devil. President Noboa, name at least one country where the US helped stabilize the situation," the Venezuelan leader stated on his regular television show, broadcast by the state-run Venezolana de Television TV channel.

"The US brings chaos wherever it comes. The US Southern Command <…> will never bring true peace and security based on respect for Ecuador’s constitution," Maduro pointed out, commenting on Ecuadorian President Noboa’s plans to request US assistance in the fight against drug trafficking and criminal gangs that has stirred up a wave of violence in the South American country.

"Venezuela has built peace, guaranteeing security without reprisals and ensuring respect for the people. We acted on our own based on the national doctrine and we did it without the US Drug Enforcement Administration, which we expelled from our country," the Venezuelan president noted.

"There are two models - a Latin American model that we can build and a model based on dependence and the intervention of the gringos, who come to seize a country’s wealth. Wherever the US Southern Command shows up, chaos emerges, <…> along with violence and even more drug trafficking," Maduro warned, using a disparaging Spanish-language term for people from the United States.

The security situation in Ecuador deteriorated sharply on January 7 after Los Choneros drug cartel leader Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known by the alias "Fito," escaped from prison. Ecuador’s armed forces and police detained 1,327 people after unrest was triggered by gang-instigated riots in correctional facilities. Some 500 guns, roughly 500 bombs, and over 20 tons of drugs have been seized by police.