A Short History of Durán, Ecuador

Durán was a sparsely populated, remote, agricultural outpost of the municipality of Guayaquil before the completion of the national railway in 1908. The line connected Durán to Ecuador’s capital, Quito, 300 kilometers to the north. Durán, which sits across the Guayas River from Guayaquil, was the perfect staging area for the storage and export of goods. With the train came people. Residents from Ecuador’s interior were drawn by its low housing prices and the opportunity to live near Ecuador’s primary port city and industrial hub, where jobs were plentiful.

It was a boom time: Merchants lined the streets, peddling goods from the coast, Ecuador’s highlands, and beyond. But development was disorderly. Upon arrival, settlers often simply staked posts in the ground to mark their territory. Some of them got land titles. Others did not. Disputes followed, and land tenure has remained at the heart of the area’s problems ever since. What’s more, the development of infrastructure – such as water and sewage services – lagged or never materialized.

With the construction of the Durán-Tambo highway in 1945, roads began to replace train lines as the country’s main mode of transport. These highways brought another round of transplants, who continued to settle via informal land invasions. Still, the municipality remained crucial to the country’s economy. In 1970, President José María Velasco Ibarra inaugurated the National Unity Bridge (Puente de la Unidad Nacional), which linked Durán to the recently established municipality of Samborondón, as well as to Guayaquil, the municipal seat of government with oversight of Durán.

*This article is part of an investigation exploring criminal dynamics in Durán, Ecuador’s primary organized crime hotspot and one of the world’s most violent cities in 2023. Read the other chapters of the investigation here or download the full report (PDF) here.

By then, Durán had become a key economic hub. Merchandise and products traversed highways that ran south to Ecuador’s border with Peru and north towards Quito. The development of highway systems and the construction of the National Unity Bridge also attracted businesses to Durán. They moved their industrial lots, warehouses, and factories into the municipality, which was a less expensive base from which to operate and offered cheap labor.

SEE ALSO: Unpacking Criminal Violence in Durán, Ecuador’s Cocaine Warehouse

But unchecked development continued. Neighborhoods without government presence — no running water, few roads, no zoning, and insecurity — grew exponentially. The historically chaotic way in which Durán has grown means that the municipality’s large businesses are also not concentrated in any particular area. Instead, production and processing plants, as well as storage warehouses are scattered around Durán.

It was not just a problem of public services. The informality also hit the area’s finances, which did not have a solid tax base to develop schools or fix roads. And for the majority of Guayaquil-based politicians, Durán was an afterthought. Street gangs emerged, giving a glimpse of what was to come, and the municipality began to assume its gritty reputation as a place where people slept rather than where they lived.

Still, there were efforts to make Durán into something more. In 1986, Durán became a separate municipality. The Durán Fair (Feria de Durán), which had begun in the 1970s, attracted visitors from all around South America to its concerts and expositions. Around the same time, a trade school, or what in Ecuador is known as a SECAP (Servicio Ecuatoriano de Capacitación Profesional), opened in the municipality. And there were repeated attempts to revive the beloved train, the most recent of which came in 2008, when then-president Rafael Correa’s administration began to convert it into a tourist line. In 2014, Correa also inaugurated a walking and biking bridge that connected Durán to Isla Santay, a national recreation and bird-watching area.

However, corruption, chaos, and neglect were catching up to the municipality. The Durán Fair had its last exposition in 2013. And in 2014, Ecuador’s economy slipped into a crisis, further hitting the entire region. Austerity measures followed and continued through the pandemic. Unemployment rose, as businesses shuttered or left the municipality. The trade school closed. And after boats crashed into the walking and biking bridge in multiple incidents between 2018 and 2022, it too was left in disrepair, severing a direct connection between Durán and the south of Guayaquil over the Guayas River.

SEE ALSO: Ecuador Organized Crime News

Into this void stepped organized crime, suffocating the city. Parks lay empty. Shops and stores close before sundown. And recently-erected security gates seal off communities, disrupting the cohesion of the community as a whole. In short, crime has torn at the social fabric, and the continuing threat of violence hinders attempts to rebuild it.