- Mass Hostage-Taking in Gang-Controlled Prisons
- Roots of Violence in Ecuador: Drug Trade and Weak Governance
- Assassination of Politician Reflects Ongoing Drug-Related Violence
57 guards and police officers were taken captive by inmates in Ecuador’s brutal prisons as explosions occurred outside the walls.
The cocaine trade in Ecuador has seen mass hostage-taking in gang-controlled prisons and the assassination of a politician.
The government’s impotence in the face of violent drug gangs has led to violence throughout South America in recent years.
For almost a day this week, six prison inmates kept scores of guards and police hostage while explosions raged across.
It was unclear how the 50 guards and seven cops were released, but all were safe.
The government believes that members of criminal gangs within the prisons were responsible for the violence in response to efforts to regain control of several jails by relocating prisoners and seizing firearms.
Authorities have also pointed to the power vacuum created by the assassination of the drug lord Rasquina three years ago as adding fuel to the fire, but experts say the problem stretches back much further than that…
A surge of retaliation that ultimately took his life.
Daniel Ponton, a security analyst, believes this week’s violence is intended to instill dread in the populace and influence politics.
He stated that the attacks were “systematic and planned” and demonstrated the inability of the state to prevent violence.
Ecuador will hold a runoff election next month, but one of the major candidates was slain before the first round.
Fernando Villavicencio has shown he was willing to fight organised crime and had a plan.
Will Freeman, a political scientist at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that the former journalist had proposed militarising Ecuador’s ports and retaking control of the country’s facilities.
“His proposals triggered a wave of retaliation that ultimately claimed his life,” Mr. Freeman explained.
Mr. Villavicencio claimed that the Los Choneros cartel and its imprisoned leader, Adolfo Macias, had threatened him and his campaign staff in the days leading up to the assassination.
Competition over drug trafficking routes in Ecuador
Mr. Freeman calls Ecuador a “drug trafficker’s paradise” since it’s between the two greatest coca growers.
In recent years, the amount of cocaine seized in the country has skyrocketed, excluding the amount that evades authorities.
The dollar is the national currency, which makes it optimal for money-laundering cartels, he added.
“Narcotrafficking did not begin in Ecuador yesterday,” he said. “This has been occurring since the 1990s and 2000s.”
However, he claims that it was once monopolized by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
In 2016, however, as part of a peace agreement, FARC surrendered their firearms.
Dr. Annette Idler, an associate professor of global security at the University of Oxford, said that control over the drug routes across the Ecuador-Colombia border has since become a competition among several organizations.
Mexican drug dealers, who have been in Ecuador since the 1990s, have also profited, she said.
She continued, “Another factor is the professionalization of domestic groups that have been observed to be involved in prison violence.
There is intense competition over drug trafficking routes from Colombia to the United States via Ecuador, and this has led to unprecedented levels of violence in the country.
Death of a criminal kingpin
The assassination of Los Choneros’ leader, Jorge Luis Zambrano, is thought to have contributed to some of the recent violence, according to Ecuadorian authorities.
Mr. Freeman and Dr. Idler said it contributed but was minor.
Zambrano, alias Rasquina, led the cartel when it took over the majority of the drug trade after FARC’s collapse.
Mr. Freeman stated, “When he was eliminated, fighting intensified between Los Choneros and their rivals, as well as within Los Choneros among mid-level commanders for control of the organization; this conflict is ongoing.”
“This explains a portion of the violence,” stated Dr. Idler. However, she noted, “It is only a small part of a much larger picture, which is much more about the geopolitical and security landscapes than it is about cocaine.
“Therefore, it is of utmost importance to comprehend how these various illicit flows, the cocaine flows, and the weapons that are being trafficked, shape how different types of groups attempt to control the territory.”
When asked what the solution to the crisis is, Dr. Idler states that Ecuador cannot address the problem alone.
She argues instead for a regional approach that invests in development, sustainability, and capacity building across multiple nations.
