More than any country in Latin America, Ecuador has been caught in the crosshairs of increasing violence related to changing patterns of transnational organized crime.
Given Ecuador borders the world’s top producers of coca, Colombia, and Peru, it was only a matter of time before the country began to play an important logistical role in the global cocaine trade. In the past five years alone, Ecuador has evolved from a transit point to a logistical distribution center from which cocaine is sent to various parts of the globe, primarily to Europe and to the United States.
While the external factors driving Ecuador’s violence are evident, the country’s institutional crises, which have lingered and gone unaddressed by several administrations, also explain the current security crisis. Weak political institutions, a dollarized economy, and a free trade agreement with Europe have turned Ecuador into the ideal location for the transshipment of cocaine in South America. This commentary is based on extensive field work and confidential interviews in Quito and Guayaquil, conducted in the month of March 2024, and it illuminates both the endogenous and exogenous factors at play in Ecuador’s spiraling violence.
President Rafael Correa’s immigration reform, which sought to make Ecuador a hub of free movement and global citizenry, opened the doors to visa-free travel from a number of countries. This policy proved equally enticing to digital nomads and organized crime bosses alike in the 2010s. Albanians are perhaps the most notable nationality to enter Ecuador in droves during this period, and they now occupy an important role in the country’s transnational organized crime landscape. Albanian gangs, in fact, have been known to use banana and shrimp companies to transport cocaine into Europe. Correa also brokered a trade agreement with the European Union that sought to gradually cut tariffs over 17 years. Importantly, the European Union lowered tariffs on top Ecuadorean exports, such as shrimp, fish, cocoa, cut flowers, and, of course, bananas. The uptick in economic exchange catapulted the Port of Guayaquil into one of the most important on the Pacific Coast of South America—and prime real estate for transnational criminal organizations.
Domestically, during the same period, Correa’s drive to consolidate political control led him to create the National Intelligence Secretariat (SENAIN), a powerful organization accused of gross privacy abuses against members of civil society and against Correa’s political opponents. To bolster SENAIN’s capabilities, Correa acceded to China’s “safe cities” security initiative, outfitting the organization with surveillance capabilities more often trained on opposition political parties than on combating organized crime. Correa also moved to defang several of the country’s criminal groups, such as the Latin Kings gang, by legalization, turning them into community-based political organizations. The failure of this endeavor, however, laid the ground for a politicization of the security apparatus of the country and the normalization of gang operations.
After Correa’s two terms, his preferred successor and former vice president, Lenín Moreno, was inaugurated. A personal fallout and allegations of domestic spying led Moreno to pivot from Correa’s policies, opening Ecuador to partnership with the United States once again and pragmatically focusing on dismantling some of Correa’s pernicious legacy.
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