A “highway for cocaine to the United States and Europe.”
This is how the specialized portal InsightCrime defined Ecuador, pointing to the fact that more than a third of the growing cocaine production in Colombia reaches Ecuador and from Ecuadorian ports goes mainly to the US and Europe.
Washington has just included Ecuador in its list of countries with the highest drug trafficking or production.
According to experts, in recent years it has suffered a paradigm shift : we are no longer talking about a “transit” country for the drug, but one in which it is stored, processed and is distributed.
“The paradigm that we had until ago 10 years, which was basically a transit country, already changed. We are no longer, “journalist Arturo Torres, who has devoted himself to investigating the issue of drug trafficking in the Andean nation, tells BBC Mundo.
” The country has taken different leaps and bounds. It goes from a country of transit to a country of collection and international distribution platforms, and takes another leap, to a processing country ”, agrees Colonel Mario Pazmiño, former director of military intelligence and now security and defense analyst.
This paradigm shift is noticeable in the greater amount of drug – mainly cocaine – seized, in the increasingly common discovery of laboratories, but also in the increase violence.
The latter is particularly visible in prisons.
Only at the end of September was the worst massacre in Ecuador’s prison history: a confrontation between rival gangs at the Number 1 Center for the Deprivation of Liberty in Guayaquil left 119 deceased and 81 wounded.
These gangs are linked to drug trafficking, and they dispute territorial control both inside and outside the jail.
More seizures
“The issue of drug trafficking has always been there,” tells BBC Mundo the General Giovanni Ponce, head of Antinarcotics of the Ecuadorian Police.
“In Colombia there are more or less 1. 200 tons of drugs per year. Of them, around 450 in the departments from Nariño and Putumayo, which border Ecuador. And of those 450, about a 50% would enter through our border, some 200 – 250 tons”.
The Increased cocaine production in Colombia has led to record seizure figures, also in Ecuador.
The increase in drug apprehensions in Ecuadorian territory s e records from 2019.
In fact, “it is the non-cocaine-producing country in South America that more drugs seized ”, says Renato Rivera, researcher of the Latin American Network for Security Analysis and Organized Crime (Relasedor).
According to figures from the Ecuadorian Anti-Narcotics Police, in 2019 were seized 79 tons of drugs; on 2020, 128; and until October 6, 2021 had been seized 136 tons . The projection of the authorities is that at the end of this year they will apprehend around 170.
“The 70% of that drug is cocaine, which already gives a context of the importance of that market in Ecuador, ”says Rivera.
The experts consulted by BBC Mundo point out several factors that explain how Ecuador climbed from that country transit to have a greater role in the drug trafficking networks of Latin America.
“Balloon effect”
The fumigation and eradication of illicit crops carried out by the Colombian authorities resulted in a “cross-border” of the same, especially from the first years 2000.
It is what is known as the “balloon effect”, according to which when drug production is repressed in a region, it increases in others.
For this purpose, “government actions against drug trafficking in Colombia forced the transfer of a large part of the infrastructure of organized crime to other countries, such as Venezuela, from where it leaves close to the 66% of the drug from Colombia, Ecuador where the 37, 5% and Brazil, for where it comes out near the 12 , 5% ”, explains Colonel Pazmiño.
Two drug trafficking routes cross Ecuador from Colombia.
One is l to the Pacific , where the drug enters through the province of Esmeraldas to the country’s ports, mainly in the provinces of Manabí and Guayas.
And the other the Amazon route , through which the drug enters through Sucumbíos and goes to Brazil criminal holding to other countries with better characteristics so that the business can continue to flourish. ”
In 2017 United Nations warned that the 35% of illicit crops were less than 11 kilometers from the border with Ecuador.
Renato Rivera, highlights that there are more and more coca leaf crops on the Ecuadorian side of the border, in the provinces of Esmeraldas and Sucumbíos.
“Criminal organizations sometimes take advantage of the gaps legal in the delimitation of the political boundary between Ecuador and Colombia to plant crops “, he says.”
“There is also a kind of mixed crops, in which the African palm, which is widely the area of Esmeraldas and Sucumbíos is mixed with the coca leaf. ”
However, for General Pazmiño the role of Ecuador in terms of cultivation“ is not relevant ”when compared to what is produced on the Colombian side.
“Most of the crop s It is carried out in Colombia. Here are some small amounts, but they are minimal, I would say ridiculous, in relation to what is produced on the Colombian side. ”
From Antinarcotics they agree: “The crops here do not really exist, we are a country of transit and drug collection. ”
But what has increased in Ecuador is the number of processing laboratories , especially close to the cocaine production enclaves of southern Colombia, Nariño and Putumayo.
“Allá (in Colombia ) is cultivated and that drug begins to macerate. Subsequently, it is passed to the laboratories and crystallisers that are already in Ecuadorian territory and then to the collection centers and international distribution platforms for going abroad ”, explains Pazmiño.
According to figures given to BBC Mundo by the police, so far this year four crystallizing laboratories have been detected in the border provinces of Esmeraldas, Carchi and Sucumbíos, where cocaine paste is refined to transform it into cocaine hydrochloride.
This whole context attracts foreign cartels and criminal groups , a trend that was reinforced by other internal and external events.
Closure of the base of Manta
While all this displacement of that “ criminal holding ” occurs a fact that for some analysts is fundamental: the dismantling of the US military base in Manta, in the cost to Ecuadorian, in 2009.
From that base aircraft used by drug traffickers were tracked .
Its closure was an electoral promise of Rafael Correa, who, once in the presidency , announced that the contract for its use would not be renewed, arguing that the base violated Ecuador’s sovereignty.
The prohibition of the presence of foreign bases in the country was included in the new Constitution approved in 2008.
As a result of its closure, according to InsightCrime , “anti-narcotics cooperation with the pa The supply and demand countries, including Ecuador, were reduced to a minimum. ”
“ It was an important turning point from which the almost total penetration of transnational organized crime “, says Pazmiño.
” It is fundamental, because it exercised control over the narco-planes that entered Ecuadorian airspace and also controlled the speedboats that went out to supply the vessels on the high seas. ”
General Ponce is clear in this regard: “Wrong decisions were made and I think they are taking the toll on us.”
“Over time, those decisions have allowed (criminal) organizations to become stronger, he adds.
However, for Renato Rivera that decision had a “Much more political connotation, as it is linked to relations with the United States, than to the impact on internal security or in the fight against drug trafficking carried out by the State”
“The base de Manta had an advanced role. Aerial surveillance monitoring was done. But after its closure there was no impact in terms of an increase in homicides or in the fall in the amount of drugs seized ”, he adds.
For the Relasedor researcher, however, there was an element that had a much greater impact on the transformation of the country in the drug trafficking chain: the collateral effects of the Peace Agreement in Colombia.
The demobilization of the FARC
In September 2016, the strengths Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a peace agreement with the Colombian State. Negotiations with the other guerrilla, the National Liberation Army (ELN), are stalled.
The FARC controlled the cocaine production and distribution chains and the demobilization of the guerrilla generated structural changes in drug trafficking not only in Colombia, but also in Ecuador, which became much more prominent in the drug trafficking scheme, according to Renato Rivera.
There were dissident groups within the FARC that stayed outside the peace agreement.
“These groups no longer necessarily follow the FARC doctrine and this leads to a kind of decentralization of the drug trafficking business ”, Says Rivera.
Both Rivera and Arturo Torres point out that these groups, which remain especially on the border with Ecuador, in the Colombian departments of Nariño and Putumayo, ally themselves with the Mexican cartels and other European organizations , mainly from the Western Balkans, arriving in the area.
It is a reality that has included the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in its report of 2021.
In it he points out that “in recent years, several other European groups have emerged as important players in the shipment of significant amounts of cocaine to Europe, also establishing its own presence and contacts in Latin America. ”
“ To some extent, this may have been facilitated by an increasingly fragmented criminal landscape in Colombia as a result of the demobilization of the FARC-EP ”, the text continues.
“ The proliferation of non-state, armed and smaller criminal groups, the aus The presence of monolithic organizations that control the various stages of the cocaine manufacturing and trafficking chain, and the greater compartmentalization of these activities, may have generated new alliances and supply chains. ”
The report refers specifically to groups of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia .
“So you not only have the participation of the FARC and the ELN there, but also those new Colombian organizations, along with international organizations, which creates a kind of territorial dispute and an increase violence that has implications for Ecuador. ”
Among these international organizations, two Mexican cartels also stand out: that of Sinaloa , which according to Torres began operating in Ecuador approximately in 2003 with the sending of emissaries and a low profile, and the C artel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG).
“On 2016 we begin to have the first alerts that the CJNG is entering with force in Ecuador. And it begins to forge alliances with the dissident Colombian groups of the FARC, and they begin to dispute the territories of the Sinaloa cartel, but in a discreet way, without exhibitions or open wars, ”explains Torres.
“In Mexico, the same thing happens: the CJNG is already beginning to dispute in a more violent way the Sinaloa cartel and Los Zetas for the leading role. And right now Ecuador becomes a mirror of what is happening in Mexico. ”
Fight for territory and increase in violence
Although the levels of violence in Ecuador are still far from those of other Latin American countries, experts and authorities warn of an unprecedented increase of the homicide rate.
In one year, the death rate violent rose one point, and went from 6.7 in 2019 to 7.7 on 2020 For each 100. 000 inhabitants – the average Latin America is 17, 2—, the highest in recent years.
InsightCrime highlights Guayaquil as a “critical point” of violence in Ecuador due to the “Constant confrontations between gangs, which went from murdering their victims in the streets and in family gatherings to kidnapping and killing more and more their targets throughout the year.”
It is a reality that General Ponce acknowledges: “There is an unusual increase in violent deaths, especially in the province of Guayas and the city of Guayaquil is where the violence has been concentrated.”
“And this is linked to the fight for the territory by drug trafficking.”
In the ports of Guayaquil, according to Antinarcotics, is where more drugs have been seized. “Around the 95% of apprehensions, ”says Ponce.
One of the scenes of violence is prisons.
September was the third riot registered in a prison Ecuadorian so far 2021 , after those that occurred in February and July, which left 79 and 22 dead, respectively.
Behind them is, according to the au toridades, the fight of different Ecuadorian criminal gangs for control of prisons.
“This territorial control is being applied in prisons because it is necessary to dominate the spaces and reduce the operational capacity of the other gang,” explains Pazmiño.
“That is why the confrontations, the executions that occur in the prisons and that are also replicated outside, in the cities, precisely where most of the routes to the collection centers pass ”.
Links with the Mexican narco
InsightCrime explains that Ecuadorian criminal groups traditionally operate in a fragmented manner, essentially acting as subcontractors of foreign criminal organizations.
“The increase in criminal violence in general in Ecuador is due to the territorial disputes that exist between criminal organizations over the routes and the security services that Mexican organizations are using ”, adds Rivera.
According to experts, in Ecuador there are several local organizations working with Mexican cartels.
Among them are Los Choneros , who have historically cooperated with the Sinaloa cartel; and Los Lobos, Los Lagartos and Los Tiguerones with the CJNG.
on the illegal routes and drug trafficking coves near the ports of Manabí and Guayas, ”says Rivera.
For the General Ponce, however, there are still very few duly investigated cases that show this relationship.
“Historically, we have pointed out, since 2013 to the 2021, about 11 cases in which the investigations have determined that there was indeed a type of relationship with the Sinaloa cartel “, he says.
” In 2020 was found for the first time any relationship with the CJNG. Very few cases are duly investigated, “he stresses.
Although” it does seem clear that the cartels send emissaries to Ecuador, that help them to coordinate to move the drug ”, he adds.
But is Ecuador really a new scenario for the direct confrontation between the Sinaloa cartel and the CJNG?
According to Rivera, there are not enough studies to determine that this dispute has an impact on criminal violence in Ecuador.
For Arturo Torres, more than in the direct fight between these two Mexican organizations, The key is in micro-trafficking .
“Where there really is a confrontation is with the (local) gangs over micro-trafficking”, He explains.
“You have in a higher echelon the cartels that operate through delegates who command here, not only the Mexicans, but also the Europeans. But they don’t fight, they don’t confront each other, because they basically do business. ”
According to the journalist, the big cartels what they do is pay for their services to these gangs with cocaine, which they sell to obtain money.
“The gangs are the ones that dispute the micro-trafficking and that is why this dispute goes to that level, that of the territory and the sale at the local level.”
“A kilo of cocaine here in the country costs US $ 2. 500. From that kilo they get 10. 000 dose and each dose is sold in US $ 2. Multiplied, they are US $ 18. 000. Invested 2. 500 and obtained a profitability of 17. 500 ”, contextualizes the Antinarcotics chief.
Corruption
According to a report by the US Department of State, drug-related corruption is “a problem within the public security forces in Ecuador.”
In June of 2019, the police arrested the former director of Civil Aviation Eduardo LC for alleged participation in organized crime in connection with the seizure of a ton of cocaine in Manta.
Her brother was arrested in September of 2019 in Belize while transporting a ton of cocaine.
For Arturo Torres, corruption in the country “got much worse with all the money generated by drug trafficking, which corrupts not only the judicial system, the prison system, but the police and the army, ”he explains.
“It has enormous power.”
“Corruption has permeated all levels of the State and that is why we come to understand the power that gangs have to introduce (in prisons) rifles, heavy weapons, grenades. ”
“That is only understood in a corrupted system.”
“At least in this part of the world, throughout Latin America, countries are experiencing corruption problems and Ecuador is no exception. No institution is exempt from being permeated by organizations ”, acknowledges Ponce.
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