Rising crime, explosion of gang violence: What is happening in Ecuador?
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00:00 Sandwiched between cocaine giants Colombia and Peru,
00:03 Ecuador has always been a transit company for its neighbours' narcotics,
00:07 but until recently was considered a safe haven from serious organised crime in the region.
00:12 For many years Ecuador seemed a bit immune to some of the violence that came here in Mexico
00:18 with the drug cartels, with the drug cartels in Colombia,
00:22 or with what they call the commandos in Brazil.
00:25 It seemed it was more stable.
00:26 But the rate of violent deaths multiplied almost tenfold between 2017 and 2023,
00:32 reaching over 7,500 last year, a historic high.
00:37 And it's no coincidence that the amount of Ecuadorian cocaine seized in Europe doubled
00:41 between 2018 and 2021, now accounting for almost a third of the continent's supply.
00:47 Ecuador has become an export hub for Peruvian, Colombian and even Mexican cocaine shipments,
00:53 with homegrown production also increasing.
00:56 Successive economic shocks weakened the economy under President Correa between 2007 and 2017.
01:03 He also made the controversial choice to close down a US airbase in the country,
01:07 which ended anti-drug flights, and end cooperation with US State Department's
01:12 International Narcotics Agency, who had been helping manage the porous border with Colombia.
01:16 And when President Moreno succeeded him, he made it his priority to pay off government debt,
01:22 with austerity measures that extended to policing and prisons.
01:26 At a time when organised crime was rapidly gaining ground in the country.
01:29 As such, prisons have become the epicentres of gang activity and national instability.
01:34 Prisons have become a breeding ground for organised crime.
01:39 And some might even argue that a lot of what happens in Ecuador
01:44 is run directly out of the prisons.
01:46 The prisoners run the prisons.
01:48 Recently elected President Nabor's approach has been a crackdown,
01:53 which some argue further inflamed violence, turning the cartels into anti-government guerrilla forces.
01:58 They of course draw their power from the international drugs trade,
02:02 which runs largely on the ever-growing US and European demand for cocaine.