Being the investigative type that I am, I already had background information about the U.S. coast guard sinking every boat that approached Ecuador, sight unseen. That's right, the U.S. Coast Guard put up a blockade off the coast of Ecuador, and sank every boat that approached that nation (this was going on a few years ago and was still going on when I talked to Nicholas).

The Coast guard also has been assigned to patrol the coasts of many other nations, invited or not. But when I spoke to Nicholas, I had only heard about the Coast Guard actually getting nasty with Ecuador. As it turned out, Ecuador was NOTHING compared to what the Coast Guard does elsewhere.