Record Cocaine Seizure Blow to Ecuador’s Gangs
The seizure of almost 22 tons of cocaine and the capture of a top Colombian drug trafficker have given the…
Record Cocaine Seizure Hits Ecuador’s Gangs
The seizure of almost 22 tons of cocaine and the capture of a top Colombian drug trafficker have given the…
Ecuador Faces a Tangled Web in Its War on Gangs
Ecuador’s numerous gangs boast significant territorial presence and a diversity of funding streams that will pose a formidable challenge to…
Assessing the Early Days of Ecuador’s War on Gangs
In response to a wave of violence in Ecuador, the government made an unprecedented decision last week and declared war…
Ecuador’s Explosive War on Gangs Lacks Exit Strategy
Ecuador’s gangs have unleashed an explosion of violence in response to the new administration’s efforts to rein in criminality, but…
GameChangers 2023: Ecuador Loses its Grip on Crime
Homicide statistics don’t tell the whole story about a country’s pattern of violence. But the record-setting figures seen in Ecuador…
GameChangers 2023: Top 5 Criminal Newsmakers
Five groups have stood out in InSight Crime’s coverage during 2023. We analyze why, and what they tell us about…
Why Have Ecuador’s Drug Trafficking Gangs Turned to Extortion?
The number of extortion cases recorded in Ecuador has skyrocketed over the past year, suggesting that the country’s fragmenting criminal…
4 Reasons Why Ecuador Is in a Security Crisis
The murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio is the culmination of an unprecedented spiral of violence unleashed by criminal groups…
The Rise and Fall of the Choneros, Ecuador’s Drug Trafficking Opportunists
Jorge Bismarck Véliz España was an ambitious man growing up in Puerto Arturo, a neighborhood in the larger town of…