Ecuador now has Latin America's highest murder rate and hosts US-backed troops fighting drug gangs. Here is how a once-calm country reached this point.
Defense · Security
Key Facts
—The collapse. Ecuador’s murder rate jumped from about 5 per 100,000 people in 2017 to roughly 52 by 2025, the highest in Latin America.
—The cause. The country became a transit hub for cocaine, with most of the drug from Colombia and Peru passing through its ports.
—The response. President Daniel Noboa declared an internal armed conflict and put the military on the streets against the gangs.
Ecuador declared a 60-day state of emergency across 10 provinces after nearly 900 killings this year, suspending home protections…
QUITO: Gunmen dressed in military-style uniforms killed seven people Monday in western Ecuador, police said, as the country…
The South American nation has reeled under a substantial increase in violent crime over the last several years.
Critics have questioned the increasing scope and deadly consequences of US anti-narcotics operations in Latin America.
Citizens of the most violent-wracked provinces have been warned the government is "at war" with the gangs.
El estudio ubica a Ecuador entre los países de América Latina donde aumentaron los enfrentamientos entre fuerzas estatales y…
