VIDEO. ‘Every day there is a settling of scores’: gangs sow terror in Ecuador

Terrifying pictures. On April 11, an armed gang attacked a fishing port in Ecuador. About 30 attackers in boats and cars broke into the port of Esmeraldas in the northwest of the country and opened fire on a crowd of artisanal fishermen, as evidenced by surveillance images obtained by AFP. At least nine people have died.

“It would be a settling of scores between two gangs against the backdrop of drug trafficking in one of the most dangerous regions of the world right now,” deciphers Guillaume Long, historian and former foreign minister of Ecuador.

“The kill rate has increased almost 5 times”

Since 2017, drug trafficking has plagued this Latin American country where instability has been on the rise. “The homicide rate in Ecuador has almost quintupled from 2017 to today,” explains Guillaume Long. “This is unprecedented in the history of Latin America, Ecuador was once a relatively peaceful country,” adds an expert on this country, which is also experiencing a major political crisis.

Located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest producers of cocaine, Ecuador has evolved from a drug transit country to a major distribution center in Europe and the United States. In 2021, authorities seized a record 210 tons of drugs there, mostly cocaine. In total, 160 tons have been seized since the beginning of the year.