1970-01-01 02:00:00
crisis and violence
The death of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, assassinated last Wednesday (9), threw spotlights on the political and social crisis in Ecuador. The country, which was once one of the safest on the continent, has experienced an escalation of violence under right-wing governments.
The deaths of Villavicencio and Briones were not isolated cases of attacks on politicians. A few weeks ago, the mayor of the city of Manta, which has the second largest port in the country, was assassinated. There was also an attempt on the life of another mayor, in the municipality of Duran. Rates of violent deaths in Ecuador have skyrocketed in recent years, jumping from 5.6 to 25 per 100,000 inhabitants between 2017 and 2023.
Analysts point out that the reasons are varied, but converge on the increase in gang activity and drug trafficking, with the association of local groups with drug dealers from Mexico, Colombia and the Balkans. The prisons would be fertile places for recruiting members of these groups, among which Los Choneros, Los Tigrones and Los Lobos stand out – the group that would have taken responsibility for Villavicencio’s death.
The UN says that in 2022 Ecuador became the third country with the highest amount of cocaine seized in the world, behind the US and Colombia.
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