TV Invasion and “Internal Armed Conflict”: Understanding the Security Crisis in Ecuador
In recent years, Ecuador affected by the increase in groups linked to major drug cartelsmainly from Mexico, mainly the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel.
The Sinaloa Cartel is considered by the United Nations to be one of the largest criminal organizations in the world. The group was founded in the city of Culiacán, which was the center of Mexican smuggling in the early 1990s and dominates much of the country's operations.
1 of 2 Ecuadorian police with men accused of attacking a television station in Quito headquarters Photo: Cesar Muñoz/AP Ecuadorian police with men accused of attacking a television station in Quito headquarters Photo: Cesar Muñoz/AP
His activities in Ecuador and Colombia led to the creation of the Los Choneros gang, one of the largest and most violent groups in the region.
The Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel was founded by a former Sinaloa member who brought together more violent men with the intention of dominating other regions. The Los Lobos gang emerged from this group.
Both cartels are involved in the international drug trade, particularly cocaine, and have found fertile ground for their operations in Ecuador.
The financial crisis made it easier to recruit young people
Since 2017, Ecuador has been in an economic crisis caused by a decline in oil sales, its main export product. The scenario aggravated by the pandemic led to increased unemployment and worsening living conditions, which facilitated the recruitment of young people by organized crime.
This led the country's rulers to crack down on crime, leading to a significant increase in the prison population and turning prisons into cradles for new factions.
The cells of these cartels have grown so large over time that the groups dominate some regions of the country, especially those with free access to the sea, according to a report published in 2023 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC ) has been published .
The peace agreement signed in 2016 between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) put an end to the cartels that controlled entire cities in the country. But instead of dying out, the drug market eventually migrated to regions of Ecuador.
There the drug traffickers found the loopholes they needed to continue their operations: a public security policy that was hardly specialized in the crimes they committed, coupled with the geographical factor.
The drug trafficking vacuum in the region has also fueled the greed of Ecuadorian, Mexican cartels and even the Albanian mafia, according to Latin American political scientist Will Freeman of the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. think tank.
“After the agreement, groups from Ecuador began fighting for this space. Recognizing the opportunity, foreign criminal groups soon joined the fight,” he said in an interview with g1.
Ecuador's geographical location is also an important point:
- Neighbor of Peru and Colombia (two of the largest coca leaf producers in the world).
- Excellent ocean access (more than 2,000 km of coastline connected to the Pacific Ocean).
- Proximity to North American countries (main buyers of these products).
- Easy access to the Panama Canal (through which drugs are sent to Europe).
2 of 2 Map shows drug trafficking routes leaving Ecuador Photo: arte/ g1 Map shows drug trafficking routes leaving Ecuador Photo: arte/ g1
The coca leaf is one of the main components of cocaine. They have a very high concentration of cocaine and a high efficiency in converting it into an easily exportable product, cocaine hydrochloride, used for example in the crack formula.
The product, already processed and packaged, is illegally transported through Ecuadorian ports in containers containing fruit, mainly bananas, according to the UNODC report.
Due to the presence of these groups in port and coastal cities, crime and violence are increasing.
The year 2023 ended with more than 7,800 homicides and 220 tons of drugs seized, new records in the country of 17 million people.
Since 2021, more than 460 people have died in clashes between inmates. Additionally, between 2018 and 2023, road killings increased by almost 800%, from 6 to 46 per 100,000 residents.
In addition to the institutional crisis, the country is also struggling with an increase in violence from drug gangs. According to the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory, around 3,600 people have been murdered in the country this year.
Security crisis during the elections
Ecuador's 2023 election campaign was marked by the assassination of candidate Fernando Villavicencio, an investigative journalist who was shot in the head after leaving a rally in Quito in early July.
A criminal group linked to the drug trade claimed responsibility, but the country's prosecutors continue to investigate the case that has put a global spotlight on unprecedented violence in the country's recent history.
On election day, Noboa, like the candidates in the first round, went to the polls wearing a bulletproof vest.
Ecuador's murder rate has increased sixfold in less than a decade