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Monitoring: What is going on in Ecuador?
Manage episode 399270646 series 2738663
At the start of the year masked gunman burst into a television studio in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The cameras were live and the entire event was broadcast. The video shows gang members shouting at staff, pushing them to the ground, threatening them with guns and explosives. These pictures subsequently travelled around the world.
But this event was just one in a series to hit Ecuador in a short space of time. Car bombs, kidnappings, murder, prison riots, prominent prisoner escapes, and another national state of emergency.
Criminal violence has washed over the country as competing gangs like Los Choneros and Los Lobos battle in prisons and on the streets over control of the lucrative cocaine trafficking business. Foreign organized criminal actors like the Mexican Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels, the Albanian Mafia, FARC dissident groups from Colombia, and others, are all active in Ecuador, a country described as a "cocaine superhighway".
In the space of just five or so years, Ecuador has gone from one of the safest countries in Latin America to a country with one of the highest murder rates. In this episode we are going to talk about how this happened.
Speaker(s):
Felipe Botero Escobar, the Head of Andean Programmes at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime
GI-TOC:
(Paper) Organized crime declares war: The road to chaos in Ecuador
(Blog) Fernando Villavicencio - Assassination Witness Project
The Global Organized Crime Index - Ecuador Country Profile
(Paper) Transnational Tentacles: Global Hotspots of Balkan Organized Crime
(Podcast episode) The Index - Ecuador
(Paper) The cocaine pipeline to Europe
Additional Reading:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-12/gang-violence-ecuador-cocaine-banana-exports-los-choneros/103311442
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/seguridad/el-fiscal-cesar-suarez-asesinado-en-los-ceibos-investigaba-el-ataque-armado-en-tc-television-nota/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68014040
https://news.sky.com/story/prosecutor-investigating-ecuador-tv-station-attack-shot-dead-13050642
https://ecuador221.com.ec/ofrecen-recompensa-por-informacion-de-cinco-cabecillas-de-bandas-criminales/
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/seguridad/colon-pico-captura-riobamba-enero-2024-nota/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67912235
https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-09/daniel-noboa-declares-an-internal-armed-conflict-in-ecuador-after-an-armed-commando-breaks-into-a-television-station-live-on-air.html
https://crisis24.garda.com/alerts/2024/01/ecuador-criminal-groups-launch-attacks-jan-9-following-declaration-of-state-of-emergency-and-curfew-update-3
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/world/americas/ecuador-gang-prison-emergency.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12943831/Chaos-Ecuador-cops-abducted-prison-riots-cities-rocked-explosions-feared-Los-Choneros-gang-boss-Fito-escaped-jail-sparking-state-emergency.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67921986
https://time.com/6552988/ecuador-most-wanted-criminal-fito-escape-guayaquil-prison/
https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-09/state-of-emergency-declared-in-ecuador-as-security-crisis-worsens.html
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/seguridad/quien-es-alias-fito-el-cabecilla-que-el-gobierno-no-hallo-en-la-carcel-regional-durante-operativo-nota/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/09/ecuadoran-president-declares-armed-conflict-gunmen-storm-tv-studio/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/2/ecuadors-embattled-president-lasso-will-not-seek-re-election
https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2023/03/31/ecuador-asesinaron-a-ruben-cherrez-amigo-del-cunado-de-guillermo-lasso-y-vinculado-a-la-mafia-albanesa/
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ecuadors-President-Calls-for-Investigation-of-Brother-in-law-20230314-0021.html
https://usacrime.com/leandro-el-patron-norero-beheaded-ecuador-prison/
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20221005-new-clashes-break-out-in-ecuador-prison-after-deadly-riot
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63126159
https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2024/01/25/can-ecuador-free-itself-from-the-grasp-of-the-drug-lords
https://insightcrime.org/news/gang-boss-money-launderer-murdered-ecuadorian-pison-riots/
https://insightcrime.org/news/judges-officials-fall-ecuador-cleans-house/
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240121-diana-salazar-the-prosecutor-spearheading-ecuador-s-fight-against-narcopolitics
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/12/ecuador-violence-bloody-drug-war
https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-13/once-ecuador-was-a-peaceful-country-now-it-is-one-of-the-regions-most-violent.html
https://www.ft.com/content/579d9423-e10d-4f2e-8fe8-33e12b80f25e
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/seguridad/asesinan-julio-cesar-farachio-candidato-a-la-alcaldia-de-salinas-nota/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64553935
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-66289355
https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-10-07/colombian-hitmen-who-killed-presidential-candidate-fernando-villavicencio-murdered-in-an-ecuadorian-prison.html
https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-13/fito-the-gang-leader-who-threatened-to-kill-candidate-fernando-villavicencio-moved-to-maximum-security-prison.html
https://www.ecuavisa.com/noticias/seguridad/orden-muerte-fernando-villavicencio-salio-desde-la-carcel-LD5948827
https://veja.abril.com.br/mundo/a-relacao-entre-membros-do-pcc-e-a-crise-de-violencia-no-equador
https://www.metropoles.com/mundo/faccoes-em-guerra-com-o-estado-no-equador-tem-vinculos-com-pcc-e-cv
https://eu.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2024/01/26/mexican-cartels-play-role-in-ecuador-violence-tv-station-storming/72255406007/
https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-crisis-killings-mexican-cartels-2b82e62999b2696e70bd0f6ce933026f
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/30/ecuador-prison-riot-cartels/
https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/justicia/2021/8/31/detienen-en-colombia-presunto-operador-del-cjng-270991.html
https://insightcrime.org/news/arrest-mexico-sinaloa-cartel-presence-colombia/
https://dialogo-americas.com/articles/mexican-cartels-bolster-foothold-and-alliances-in-colombia/
https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/latin-america/ecuador-nabs-wanted-narco-president-says-crackdown-bearing-fruit.phtml
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/senior-farc-commander-pleads-guilty-brooklyn-federal-court-conspiring-distribute
https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/22-00767-INCSR-2022-Vol-1.pdf
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-64785502
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/frontpage/2022/December/record-amounts-of-cocaine-seized-bring-the-builders-32-tons-of-cocaine-disposed-through-encapsulation-method-in-ecuador.html
https://insightcrime.org/news/record-cocaine-seizure-blow-to-ecuadors-gangs/
https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/inl/rls/nrcrpt/2016/vol1/253260.htm
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/ecuador-presidential-hopefuls-pledge-action-ports-where-bananas-hide-cocaine-2023-10-11/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-10/dutch-seize-record-660-million-cocaine-hidden-in-banana-cargo
https://www.intellinews.com/banana-crates-from-ecuador-now-usual-suspect-for-turkey-s-cocaine-police-286135/?source=latin-america
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italian-police-find-880-million-cocaine-stashed-banana-crates-2023-05-16/
https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/prison-for-drugs-gang-who-attempted-to-smuggle-cocaine-worth-11-million-in-bananas
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12451487/Spain-cocaine-Ecuador-banana.html
http://www.fsb.ru/fsb/press/message/single.htm%21id%3D10439686%40fsbMessage.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67964229
https://www.ft.com/content/0bcff64a-4a16-49e4-87dc-03295e40b63d
https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-kidnapping-british-businessman-former-consul-ba9c148f10b39071375250119b6c1710
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/02/ecuador-violence-deadly-attacks-gangs-cartels
https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/latin-america/mutilated-bodies-gang-wars-shock-once-peaceful-ecuador.phtml
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/13/ecuador-violence-galapagos-cocaine/
https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/seguridad/gobierno-declaracion-excepcion-carceles-ecuador.html
https://elpais.com/internacional/2023-03-01/419-muertos-y-cero-responsables-dos-anos-de-la-oleada-de-masacres-carcelarias-en-ecuador.html
https://insightcrime.org/ecuador-organized-crime-news/lobos-ecuador/
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2020/12/07/nota/8075287/dos-bandas-relacionadas-choneros-lagartos-pelea-carcel-esmeraldas/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fito-cartel-leader-ecuador-violence-b2476638.html
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240111-what-we-know-about-fito-ecuador-s-notorious-gang-leader-who-escaped-jail
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2020/07/04/nota/7894974/guerra-bandas-guayaquil-pierde-protagonistas-hasta-covid-19/
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2019/06/12/nota/7374450/quien-era-alias-cubano/
https://insightcrime.org/es/noticias-crimen-organizado-ecuador/los-lagartos/
https://insightcrime.org/news/brief/homicides-ecuador-prisons/
https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7m8a8/gang-war-causes-brutal-prison-riots-across-ecuador-leaving-79-dead
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2020/12/28/nota/9045034/persona-herida-bala-interior-centro-comercial-manta/
https://www.primicias.ec/noticias/sociedad/macabro-mensaje-muerte-rasquina/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67930452
https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-11/tv-studio-hostages-recall-terror-of-on-air-attack-it-is-very-easy-to-kill-journalists-in-ecuador-too-easy.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12948857/Gangsters-stormed-Ecuadorian-TV-station-guns-grenades-taking-journalists-hostage-humbled-detained-police.html
42 episodes
Manage episode 399270646 series 2738663
At the start of the year masked gunman burst into a television studio in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The cameras were live and the entire event was broadcast. The video shows gang members shouting at staff, pushing them to the ground, threatening them with guns and explosives. These pictures subsequently travelled around the world.
But this event was just one in a series to hit Ecuador in a short space of time. Car bombs, kidnappings, murder, prison riots, prominent prisoner escapes, and another national state of emergency.
Criminal violence has washed over the country as competing gangs like Los Choneros and Los Lobos battle in prisons and on the streets over control of the lucrative cocaine trafficking business. Foreign organized criminal actors like the Mexican Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels, the Albanian Mafia, FARC dissident groups from Colombia, and others, are all active in Ecuador, a country described as a "cocaine superhighway".
In the space of just five or so years, Ecuador has gone from one of the safest countries in Latin America to a country with one of the highest murder rates. In this episode we are going to talk about how this happened.
Speaker(s):
Felipe Botero Escobar, the Head of Andean Programmes at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime
GI-TOC:
(Paper) Organized crime declares war: The road to chaos in Ecuador
(Blog) Fernando Villavicencio - Assassination Witness Project
The Global Organized Crime Index - Ecuador Country Profile
(Paper) Transnational Tentacles: Global Hotspots of Balkan Organized Crime
(Podcast episode) The Index - Ecuador
(Paper) The cocaine pipeline to Europe
Additional Reading:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-12/gang-violence-ecuador-cocaine-banana-exports-los-choneros/103311442
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/seguridad/el-fiscal-cesar-suarez-asesinado-en-los-ceibos-investigaba-el-ataque-armado-en-tc-television-nota/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68014040
https://news.sky.com/story/prosecutor-investigating-ecuador-tv-station-attack-shot-dead-13050642
https://ecuador221.com.ec/ofrecen-recompensa-por-informacion-de-cinco-cabecillas-de-bandas-criminales/
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/seguridad/colon-pico-captura-riobamba-enero-2024-nota/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67912235
https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-09/daniel-noboa-declares-an-internal-armed-conflict-in-ecuador-after-an-armed-commando-breaks-into-a-television-station-live-on-air.html
https://crisis24.garda.com/alerts/2024/01/ecuador-criminal-groups-launch-attacks-jan-9-following-declaration-of-state-of-emergency-and-curfew-update-3
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/world/americas/ecuador-gang-prison-emergency.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12943831/Chaos-Ecuador-cops-abducted-prison-riots-cities-rocked-explosions-feared-Los-Choneros-gang-boss-Fito-escaped-jail-sparking-state-emergency.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67921986
https://time.com/6552988/ecuador-most-wanted-criminal-fito-escape-guayaquil-prison/
https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-09/state-of-emergency-declared-in-ecuador-as-security-crisis-worsens.html
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/seguridad/quien-es-alias-fito-el-cabecilla-que-el-gobierno-no-hallo-en-la-carcel-regional-durante-operativo-nota/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/09/ecuadoran-president-declares-armed-conflict-gunmen-storm-tv-studio/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/2/ecuadors-embattled-president-lasso-will-not-seek-re-election
https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2023/03/31/ecuador-asesinaron-a-ruben-cherrez-amigo-del-cunado-de-guillermo-lasso-y-vinculado-a-la-mafia-albanesa/
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ecuadors-President-Calls-for-Investigation-of-Brother-in-law-20230314-0021.html
https://usacrime.com/leandro-el-patron-norero-beheaded-ecuador-prison/
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20221005-new-clashes-break-out-in-ecuador-prison-after-deadly-riot
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63126159
https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2024/01/25/can-ecuador-free-itself-from-the-grasp-of-the-drug-lords
https://insightcrime.org/news/gang-boss-money-launderer-murdered-ecuadorian-pison-riots/
https://insightcrime.org/news/judges-officials-fall-ecuador-cleans-house/
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240121-diana-salazar-the-prosecutor-spearheading-ecuador-s-fight-against-narcopolitics
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/12/ecuador-violence-bloody-drug-war
https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-13/once-ecuador-was-a-peaceful-country-now-it-is-one-of-the-regions-most-violent.html
https://www.ft.com/content/579d9423-e10d-4f2e-8fe8-33e12b80f25e
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/seguridad/asesinan-julio-cesar-farachio-candidato-a-la-alcaldia-de-salinas-nota/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64553935
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-66289355
https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-10-07/colombian-hitmen-who-killed-presidential-candidate-fernando-villavicencio-murdered-in-an-ecuadorian-prison.html
https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-13/fito-the-gang-leader-who-threatened-to-kill-candidate-fernando-villavicencio-moved-to-maximum-security-prison.html
https://www.ecuavisa.com/noticias/seguridad/orden-muerte-fernando-villavicencio-salio-desde-la-carcel-LD5948827
https://veja.abril.com.br/mundo/a-relacao-entre-membros-do-pcc-e-a-crise-de-violencia-no-equador
https://www.metropoles.com/mundo/faccoes-em-guerra-com-o-estado-no-equador-tem-vinculos-com-pcc-e-cv
https://eu.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2024/01/26/mexican-cartels-play-role-in-ecuador-violence-tv-station-storming/72255406007/
https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-crisis-killings-mexican-cartels-2b82e62999b2696e70bd0f6ce933026f
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/30/ecuador-prison-riot-cartels/
https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/justicia/2021/8/31/detienen-en-colombia-presunto-operador-del-cjng-270991.html
https://insightcrime.org/news/arrest-mexico-sinaloa-cartel-presence-colombia/
https://dialogo-americas.com/articles/mexican-cartels-bolster-foothold-and-alliances-in-colombia/
https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/latin-america/ecuador-nabs-wanted-narco-president-says-crackdown-bearing-fruit.phtml
https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/senior-farc-commander-pleads-guilty-brooklyn-federal-court-conspiring-distribute
https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/22-00767-INCSR-2022-Vol-1.pdf
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-64785502
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/frontpage/2022/December/record-amounts-of-cocaine-seized-bring-the-builders-32-tons-of-cocaine-disposed-through-encapsulation-method-in-ecuador.html
https://insightcrime.org/news/record-cocaine-seizure-blow-to-ecuadors-gangs/
https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/inl/rls/nrcrpt/2016/vol1/253260.htm
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/ecuador-presidential-hopefuls-pledge-action-ports-where-bananas-hide-cocaine-2023-10-11/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-10/dutch-seize-record-660-million-cocaine-hidden-in-banana-cargo
https://www.intellinews.com/banana-crates-from-ecuador-now-usual-suspect-for-turkey-s-cocaine-police-286135/?source=latin-america
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italian-police-find-880-million-cocaine-stashed-banana-crates-2023-05-16/
https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/prison-for-drugs-gang-who-attempted-to-smuggle-cocaine-worth-11-million-in-bananas
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12451487/Spain-cocaine-Ecuador-banana.html
http://www.fsb.ru/fsb/press/message/single.htm%21id%3D10439686%40fsbMessage.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67964229
https://www.ft.com/content/0bcff64a-4a16-49e4-87dc-03295e40b63d
https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-kidnapping-british-businessman-former-consul-ba9c148f10b39071375250119b6c1710
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/02/ecuador-violence-deadly-attacks-gangs-cartels
https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/latin-america/mutilated-bodies-gang-wars-shock-once-peaceful-ecuador.phtml
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/13/ecuador-violence-galapagos-cocaine/
https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/seguridad/gobierno-declaracion-excepcion-carceles-ecuador.html
https://elpais.com/internacional/2023-03-01/419-muertos-y-cero-responsables-dos-anos-de-la-oleada-de-masacres-carcelarias-en-ecuador.html
https://insightcrime.org/ecuador-organized-crime-news/lobos-ecuador/
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2020/12/07/nota/8075287/dos-bandas-relacionadas-choneros-lagartos-pelea-carcel-esmeraldas/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fito-cartel-leader-ecuador-violence-b2476638.html
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240111-what-we-know-about-fito-ecuador-s-notorious-gang-leader-who-escaped-jail
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2020/07/04/nota/7894974/guerra-bandas-guayaquil-pierde-protagonistas-hasta-covid-19/
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2019/06/12/nota/7374450/quien-era-alias-cubano/
https://insightcrime.org/es/noticias-crimen-organizado-ecuador/los-lagartos/
https://insightcrime.org/news/brief/homicides-ecuador-prisons/
https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7m8a8/gang-war-causes-brutal-prison-riots-across-ecuador-leaving-79-dead
https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2020/12/28/nota/9045034/persona-herida-bala-interior-centro-comercial-manta/
https://www.primicias.ec/noticias/sociedad/macabro-mensaje-muerte-rasquina/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67930452
https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-11/tv-studio-hostages-recall-terror-of-on-air-attack-it-is-very-easy-to-kill-journalists-in-ecuador-too-easy.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12948857/Gangsters-stormed-Ecuadorian-TV-station-guns-grenades-taking-journalists-hostage-humbled-detained-police.html
42 episodes
All episodes
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