- Citizens endure threats, violence
- Ecuador faces escalating organised crime
- Government struggles to respond
Maria failed to anticipate that a phone call would have such a profound impact on the course of her life.
As a resident of Guayaquil, an Ecuadorian port city, for the past 48 years, she had witnessed the destruction of her borough at the hands of organized crime: businesses had ceased operations, residents had fled, and criminal bands had begun street brawls.
However, she never anticipated experiencing the crime’s direct repercussions. Since her phone call a few months ago, everything has changed.
“He threatened to abduct my children if I did not pay him $500 within a few hours,” Maria, who requested anonymity, disclosed.
She paid the fee in the end. However, out of concern for additional dangers, she relocated her children to a different region of the country with relatives. Maria stated, “I wept and went without food for nearly three weeks, but I had no choice.”
Opinions similar to hers have become progressively more prevalent. Since 2018, violence has plagued Ecuador due to the expansion of organized crime and the country’s faltering economy.
From being called “an island of peace” to having one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America. From 2023 to the following year, 46.5 murders per 100,000 persons occurred.
The nation was jolted by a new onslaught of violence earlier this month. Inmates were engulfed in riots. The criminal commanders managed to evade apprehension. Additionally, masked assailants attacked a live television broadcast in Guayaquil, capturing staff members.
State of Emergency in Ecuador
During the seventeen days beginning on January 9 and ending on January 25, the police and military detained 3,611 individuals, 237 of whom were charged with terrorism-related offenses. Newly inaugurated President Daniel Noboa declared a nationwide state of emergency to combat the burgeoning crime.
In the interim, however, the deteriorating security situation in Ecuador has drastically altered the lives of citizens such as Maria, especially in severely affected cities like Guayaquil.
Due to its bustling international port and population of approximately 2.5 million, Guayaquil has become a hub for illicit activity. The city is situated in the province of Guayas, which in 2023 constituted nearly half of the total homicides in the country.
Maria recollects that her Guayaquil neighborhood was tranquil before 2023. She stated that although there was some drug trafficking, residents could walk at night without fear.
However, everything changed when two factions began vying for control of the territory at the start of the year.
Ecuador, a relatively small nation tucked between the two largest cocaine-producing countries in the world—Peru and Colombia—has only recently become a significant hub for drug trafficking.
International drug-trafficking organizations such as Sinaloa and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, according to the Ecuadorian Organised Crime Observatory, utilized Ecuador’s debilitated economy to negotiate with local gangs and recruit unemployed youth.
“All of them were from our neighborhood,” Maria said of the gang’s recent recruits. “We have observed their development since they were young children.” They were subsequently confined in this.”
She further stated that local gangs demanded $100 in money from street vendors and businesses as extortion. “Many families who subsisted by selling fish or bananas on the streets were forced to cease operations; in some cases, they were forced to abandon their homes.”
Private security for affluent individuals
East of Guayaquil, across the Guayas River, is Duran’s thriving industrial center, home to 300,000 individuals. Local businesses have flourished over the past fifteen years due to Duran’s advantageous location: shipments can easily reach the Pacific Ocean via the river.
The city currently possesses Ecuador’s fifth-greatest gross domestic product (GDP), as the national central bank reported.
On the contrary, Duran has been transformed into a frontline between the Latin Kings and the Chone Killers. As the number of homicides in Duran increased from 119 in 2022 to 407 in 2023, the city became the most violent in all of Ecuador.
To protect themselves from abduction, entrepreneurs were forced to hire private security and equip their own vehicles,” according to a spokesman for the Duran-based business organization that represents manufacturing interests. He wished to maintain his anonymity.
The business group reports that at least six abductions have occurred within the past year. The spokesperson continued, “One of our members was just threatened with the bombing of the power plant adjacent to his factory.”
He explained that small and medium-sized businesses suffer because they cannot afford additional security.
In recent months, gang members have also targeted transportation operations. Since the start of 2021, according to Renato Gomez, coordinator for Ecuador’s National Federation for Heavy Transport, the situation for truck drivers has deteriorated.
“They initiated cargo theft.” Gomez stated, “They then absconded the drivers themselves, amputating their fingers or hands and sending videos to their families before capturing the entire vehicles.”
Gomez stated that during the height of the crisis, eight to ten truck drivers were abducted daily for denying extortion payments ranging from $4,000 to $20,000. Nationwide, thirty drivers have been assassinated in the past two years alone.
Despite suspending civil liberties and imposing a curfew on regular inhabitants, Gomez supports the emergency in Noboa.
Since the emergency declaration was issued, Gomez reported that no additional abductions have occurred. Our fleet of trucks will be donated to the military because this is every Ecuadorian’s battle.
A fear that transcends violent locations
Despite the majority of the violence being concentrated in neighboring provinces and along coastlines, such as Los Rios, its impact has been far-reaching.
For example, residents of the capital city of Quito have reported exercising heightened caution. Nancy, a neighbourhood food vendor who requested anonymity, has adjusted her sales schedule.
Typically, she drives her truck along the entire length of Carolina Park; vending produce to community members assembling to unwind or engage in volleyball on the expansive outdoor courts.
“Previously, I would remain here until 6 p.m. selling mangoes; however, I have since departed at that time due to the prevailing sense of insecurity,” she explained. Her revenue has decreased by nearly half.
Additionally, some capital municipalities have resorted to self-policing, even resorting to violence to safeguard their communities.
Prevalent in northern Quito, Lower Carcelen has a long history of grassroots organizing; its electrical infrastructure and sewage system were developed through “minga,” an Indigenous term meaning “collective effort.”
A member of the Lower Carcelen community was, however, assassinated in April. Simon, a local who requested anonymity, stated that rumors that the victim, a local business owner, had either resisted a robbery or declined to pay an extortion fee rapidly spread throughout the community.
Neighbors, indignant, established group conversations to coordinate a response. When three purported extortionists arrived to threaten another business, Simon stated that locals were prepared.
“Everyone rushed into the streets and seized them.” “An individual endeavored to torch them to death, but ultimately, the majority resisted the temptation to transform
Into murderers,” he elaborated.
However, his acquaintances assaulted the alleged gang members, he continued. According to El Comercio, a newspaper based in Quito, the local populace struck a woman with “sticks, punches, and kicks” as two male suspects escaped the scene.
Eventually, law enforcement officers arrived to disperse the hundreds-strong throng and apprehend the suspects.
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Simon stated that he has not become aware of any subsequent extortion attempts against Lower Carcelen residents. His knowledge, however, extends to additional unlawful undertakings.
Many Lower Carcelen residents are uneducated and engage in informal street vending. Simon noted that despite this, specific individuals continue to lead extravagant lives, which he attributes to unlawful activities. “How do they raise the funds to construct four-story dwellings from street-sold potatoes?”
In contrast to the Ecuadorian government, which is under intense pressure to suppress illicit activity, social researcher and educator Blanca Rivera is a skeptic of “mano dura” or “iron fist” policies.
After seeing Guayaquil’s most neglected districts, she thinks education and social services would work better. Thus, adolescents would have viable alternatives to gang membership.
Rivera stated, “There are entire neighbourhoods that lack access to water.”
The state of emergency, however, has mandated the presence of the military in communities such as Maria’s. She has conducted two neighbourhood investigations and made 20 arrests since the emergency proclamation on January 8.
Nevertheless, Maria has adapted to the adjustments. “I no longer observe anyone being killed or shot at.” She exclaimed, “I can at last traverse the streets of my neighbourhood once more.” “Forever, we will require soldiers in the street.”
