With 45 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, Ecuador is the most violent country in Latin America

Ecuador The year 2023 closed with a tragic toll of 7,200 violent deaths, which represents a rate of 45 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants and places the country as the most violent in the world. Latin Americaaccording to data from the Ecuadorian Observatory of Organized Crime.

The increase in numbers shows the new dynamics of violence and crime that the country is experiencing, according to the most recent biannual bulletin on intentional homicides in Ecuador of the Observatory, referring to the period January-June 2023.

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“In the first half of 2022, not only did the number of homicides double compared to the same period in 2021, but the first half of 2023 shows an increase of more than five times (528.10%) in the number of homicides compared to the first. semester of 2019″, according to this document.

Colombian soldiers and police performing tasks in cooperation with their Ecuadorian counterparts, at a border crossing in the department of Nariño, Colombia, on January 10, 2024. (Photo by the Colombian National Army/EFE) (Colombian National Army/)

The study also reveals that the average number of daily homicides in the first half of 2023 was 19.72, which represents a 69.13% increase in intentional homicides compared to the same period of the previous year.

The increase in homicides was constant from 2016 (5.78 per 100 thousand inhabitants) to 2023 (45), but the exponential increase began in 2019 (7.84) and continued in the following years: 2020 (13, 94), 2021 (19.66) and 2022 (25.32).

In fact, in 2022, homicides represented the fourth cause of death in the country, with a total of 4,451 deaths, a number only surpassed by heart disease (13,508), the diabetes (5,051) and the Cerebrovascular diseases (4,970).

Security forces patrol the El Labrador metro station in Quito, Ecuador, on January 10, 2024. (Photo STRINGER/AFP). (SPAR/)

Ecuador’s criminal scene, dominated by Colombian criminal groups as well as Mexican cartels, has transformed the country into a growing focus of organized crime.

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As revealed Crime Insightorganization specialized in analyzing issues related to organized crime and citizen security in the Americas, “The country’s gangs have become increasingly sophisticated and organized”.

“The gangs control many of the country’s prisons and have strengthened connections with major international criminal organizations, working as middlemen moving cocaine from neighboring countries through Ecuador’s huge ports to Europe, U.S and even Australia”, says this NGO.

Proliferation of criminal groups

Ecuador’s criminal groups have traditionally been fragmented and operate as subcontractors for foreign criminal organizations, especially Colombian and Mexican groups, indicates InSight Crime, which warns that in recent years “several prison and drug trafficking gangs that have grown enormously in sophistication and capture”.

Photograph provided by the Armed Forces of Ecuador that shows the intervention in the Litoral Regional prison, in Guayaquil, where dangerous criminals from the most powerful gangs in the country are detained. (EFE).

Among these bands predominates The Chonerosthe largest and most sophisticated group, which began as an armed wing of an anonymous Colombian drug cartel that controlled maritime trafficking routes from the Pacific to Mexico and the United States.

Over time, Los Choneros became the most powerful prison gang in the country, with a presence in several prisons and cities where they carried out illegal activities such as microtrafficking, hired killers, extortion and smuggling.

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The Choneros, according to InSight Crime, have ties to the Sinaloa Cartel from Mexico, where they transport cocaine. Its rival groups include The alligators, The Wolves, The Tiguerones, Killer Chones it’s him New Generation Ecuador Poster.

To these organizations, which carried out half a dozen bloody riots in Ecuadorian prisons between 2022 and 2023, we must add groups linked to Colombian guerrilla groups, such as the Oliver Sinisterra Front -a dissident faction of FARC– it’s him National Liberation Army (THEN).

Albanian traffickers have also established a strong presence in the country. “Cocaine gentlemen like it Dritan Rexhepi Tons of drugs were transferred from Ecuador to Europe”InSight Crime reveals.

Source: Elcomercio