A Spanish friend often repeats this phrase. It’s been on my mind this week, maybe with the hope that what’s happening to Ecuador isn’t the worst thing that’s happened to us.

They are using helicopters and drones to intervene in the Esmeraldas prison this Sunday the 14th, after the rescue of prison officials

What is the crisis of violence in a country that cannot escape underdevelopment and is still plagued by all kinds of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, landslides, landslides? It is a moral fact, not a natural fact. Within the natural fact, man is somehow conditioned, since the phenomenon does not depend on man, but on nature (hormonal changes, ecological imbalance, diseases). On the other hand, in a moral act, man succeeds in constituting and guiding himself. These types of events are also called human acts, and they are based on the freedom and conscience of each person (Ojeda, 2006). So an earthquake (2016) or the eruption of Reventador (2017) is not the same as unilaterally abandoning the Andean Agreement on Tariff Preferences and Drug Eradication (2008), allowing foreigners to enter without criminal background checks (2008) or removing the Manta base ( 2009). Which do the most damage? In the words of Marianita de Jesús: “Ecuador will not be destroyed by natural disasters, but by bad governments.”

(…) we allow Ecuador to become a fundamental part in the logistics and transportation of supplies.

I was tempted to blame every coke line the first world pulls. But aren’t we the ones who have cooked up the recipe for disaster step by step? Didn’t we follow the playbook to become the most violent country in Latin America? Even if we take into account that more and more drugs are consumed in the world every day, according to the UNODC World Drug Report 2023 (exogenous factor), it is no less true that we used to have protection against drug trafficking that was deliberately eliminated (endogenous factor). Result: in 2023, we will establish ourselves as the first country exporting medicines to Europe. Officially, we are the gateway to Colombian drugs despite the obstacles in the way: let’s not forget Colombia’s Operation Phoenix, where the second-ranking commander of the FARC, Raúl Reyes, died. The FARC was stationed in Ecuadorian territory dealing in illegal crops and seemed to be quite comfortable in Ecuador. Let’s also not forget Correa’s face glaring at Uribe at the 2008 Rio summit for not informing him of the operation.

The dialogue was key to the release of 47 employees from the Cotopaxi prison, according to the police chief

The demand has always been there, but we are allowing Ecuador to become a core part of the logistics and transportation of the supply. It cost us to go from being known worldwide for corruption (another moral fact) to being recognized worldwide for violence, with 43 violent deaths per 100,000 population, including a presidential candidate and dozens of children.

‘We are born again. This was a blessing but we are sorry that our colleague died in this wave of violence’: 15 prison guides freed in Machala prison

I wish I had the optimism I read out there, perhaps as a survival tool: “We can get out of this too,” even as I see the youngest president on the planet take action to attack the problem head-on and “take the bull by the horns.” But it’s also good to validate emotions and have realistic phrases running through our heads like ‘without a doubt, this is the worst arena we’ve ever fought in’. (OR)