| Ecuadorian security crisis | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the War on drugs (in Ecuador) and the spillover of the Colombian conflict | ||||||||
 Ecuadorian Army assaulting the Litoral Penitentiary, in Guayaquil | ||||||||
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
| Los Choneros Latin Kings Sinaloa Cartel | Los Lagartos Los Lobos Los Tiguerones Los Chone Killers Jalisco New Generation Cartel | ||||||
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|---|---|---|
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Since around 2018, [1] Ecuador has suffered a security crisis resulting from conflicts between criminal organizations with connections to drug trafficking. [2] In recent years, coca leaf production has risen in neighboring Colombia [1] and Peru, [3] with both cocaine and coca base entering Ecuador by land and leaving by sea. [1] The border with Colombia became more porous after Rafael Correa in 2009 declined to renew the US military's lease at Eloy Alfaro Military Base in Manta and stopped working with the United States' Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Following Correa was Lenín Moreno, who cut funding for the prison system and the National Police of Ecuador. [4]
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Meanwhile, FARC and the Colombian government reached a peace agreement in the mid-2010s. Multiple groups fought to fill the vacuum left by FARC, and FARC members who opposed the peace deal relocated to Ecuador. Additionally, Ecuador's use of the United States dollar makes it easier for gangs to launder money. [4]
Inter-gang conflicts began after the murder on 28 December 2020 of Jorge Luis Zambrano, leader of the criminal syndicate Los Choneros, considered one of the oldest and most dangerous in the country. [5] Zambrano's death led to the criminal groups known as Los Chone Killers, Los Lobos, Los Pipos, and Los Tiguerones, which functioned as substructures of Los Choneros, to separate from the gang and start a war against its former leaders for control of the country's prisons and drug trafficking through a series of massacres and other criminal acts. [6] [5] [7] A 2022 report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said that the government had "lost control" of its prison system. [1]
The focus of the violence was at first focused within the prisons of the country, [6] with events such as the February 2021 Ecuadorian prison riots and the September 2021 Guayaquil prison riot, both of which occurred in 2021 and the second considered one of the bloodiest prison massacres in Latin American history. [5] In total, 503 inmates were murdered in the country during 2021 alone. [8]
In recent years, the wave of violence has also manifested itself outside prisons, and international criminal organisations now operate within Ecuador, including the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and the Albanian mafia. [1] This has been reflected in citizen perception, as shown by a survey carried out by the firm Click Research in October 2021, which indicated that crime was considered by the citizens as the biggest problem that the country was going through. [2] The wave of violence has generated a sharp rise in the number of murders in the country. [9] In 2021, the intentional homicide rate reached 14.04 per 100,000 people (the highest since 2011), [10] compared to a rate of 7.8 in 2020. [11] These figures have continued to increase in 2022. The most violent areas in the country includes the cantons of Guayaquil, Durán and Samborondón. It saw 53 murders between January and February 2021 and 162 in the same period in 2022. [12]
