The images of armed men forcefully entering a television set during a live broadcast a few days ago went viral, highlighting the severity of the security crisis facing Ecuador.

It was a show of force and a direct challenge to state institutions and to President Daniel Noboa, who declared a state of emergency on January 8 following the escape from prison of two of the leaders of two of the main criminal gangs operating in the country.

In addition to what happened on the TC channel in Guayaquil, there were also explosions in several parts of the country and prison riots with the arrest of dozens of guards, in a criminal display unprecedented in Ecuador’s history.

That caused Noboa to sign an executive decree recognition of the existence of an “internal armed conflict” order the neutralization of the gangs he described as transnational terrorist organizations.

In his decree, he named a total of 22 criminal gangs, which he identified as the source of the serious situation of violence and insecurity in the country.

In the list, the gangs appear in alphabetical order and some names stand out for the scope of their operations across Ecuadorian territory, such as The Chorenos and the Wolves.

These two gangs are among the five most important criminal organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the specialized portal InsightCrime.

“For years, the Los Choneros gang was the dominant criminal structure in Ecuador,” the portal noted in its study ‘The 5 protagonists of crime’.

“However, the fragmentation of the group led to the rise of its main rival, Los Lobos, who now contest power and seek their share of the criminal pie.”

In this map, prepared by InsightCrime, with data from Ecuador’s Ministry of the Interior, you can see how Los Lobos is present in almost all provinces of Ecuador, from the north in Esmeraldas to the south in Loja.

The Choneros, in turn, are more concentrated in the center and south of the country, although they also control the eastern Amazon region.

Precisely, the two leaders who escaped from prison last weekend were the leaders of these two gangs, Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito”, of Los Chorenos, and Fabricio Colón Pico, alias “El Salvaje”, head of Los Lobos.

Tiguerones, Lagartos and Fatales are other gangs mentioned by Noboa that have a widespread presence in Ecuador, but most are concentrated in two main provinces: Guayas and Esmeraldas.

The rise of criminal gangs in Ecuador is due to this, according to analysts the transformation the country has undergone in recent years in terms of its role in the global drug trade.

From a ‘transit country’, Ecuador has become a country where drugs are stored, processed and distributed, to the point where the United States has included the country in the list of countries with the highest trafficking and production in the world.

As there are more drugs, there is also more money, which intensifies the dispute over control of the drug trade on Ecuadorian territory.

It is no coincidence that the provinces with the largest presence of criminal groups are also the most violent.

Ecuador went from registering six murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2016 to 25 per 100,000 in 2022.

Meanwhile, between January and June 2023 3,513 murders were recordedThat represents an increase of 58% compared to 2022, according to data from the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory (OECO).

“90% of murders in Ecuador are murders, that is, related to organized crime. Of these, only 7% of murders are solved,” explains Renato Rivera, coordinator of the OECS.

This increase is geographically in line with the main drug corridors.

One of those routes, the Pacific Ocean, runs through it Esmeraldas and Guayaquil, two port cities from which narcotics are distributed to Central America, Mexico, the United States and Europe.

The other route, the Amazon route, crosses the province of Sucumbíos on the border with Colombia, from where the drugs are sent to Brazil and other countries in the region.

The large amount of drugs currently mobilized in Ecuador is reflected in the record number of seizures recorded in the country since 2019, exceeding 200 tons in the last three years. (JO)