Ecuador has deployed its security forces to combat and dismantle transnational organized crime, as the country faces its most severe wave of violence due to narcotrafficking. The South America country has been under a state of emergency since January 9, declaring war on armed gangs and working on regaining control of the streets and the most violent prisons after a terrorist group invaded a local television station, France 24 reported.
Quito, the capital, is the epicenter of the wave of attacks that led the government to declare an “internal armed conflict,” Spanish newspaper El País reported. Authorities identified 22 organized crime groups as terrorists and ordered military forces to neutralize them.
“The first effect is that instead of the National Police countering a common crime problem, violent and unlawful acts become war crimes. Their protagonists are non-state combatants and the response is in the hands of the Army,” María Paula Romo, Ecuador’s former Government minister, told Diálogo on January 24. “This is an unprecedented decision in the country, to militarize the response to the security crisis that has been radicalized in recent days by a series of terrorist attacks, hostage-taking, and the escape of criminal leaders.”
Among the strategies to weaken narco-terrorist groups, as part of President Noboa’s Plan Phoenix (Plan Fénix) to root out insecurity in the country, the Ecuadorian Armed Forces and National Police carried out interventions in several prisons that had fallen into the hands of gang members and took back control on January 14. Security forces freed hostages (among them prison guards and administrative officials) seized weapons, drugs, and communication devices, among many other items, Infobae reported.
From January 9-28, security forces carried out more than 51,000 operations; detained 4,181 criminals; and seized more than 37 tons of drugs, 1,424 firearms, more than 73,000 rounds of ammunitions, and 5,285 explosives, among many others, the Presidency of Ecuador indicated via X.
Authorities are keeping up the search for José Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias Fito, leader of the Los Choneros gang, a criminal group considered responsible for a spike in car bombings, kidnappings, and slayings, who escaped from a Guayaquil prison. Alias Fito has links to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo reported. Following his escape an international search was activated, and violence spiraled, Ecuavisa reported.
On January 19, Argentine authorities detained Macías Villamar’s wife, children, and other family members as well as associates (a total of eight people) and deported them that same day to Ecuador.
Current scenario
According to El País, the criminal groups are made up of Ecuadorian, Colombian, Venezuelan, Peruvian, and Mexican criminals whose main objective is to control territories and drug trafficking routes to establish logistics centers for trade, transport, storage, and security for drugs and chemical precursors.
“Drug trafficking is a threat that affects Ecuador in a systematic way, but with greater severity in the last 10 years, following the start of peace negotiations in Colombia, which led to an upsurge in drug trafficking in Colombia,” Dr. Daniel Pontón, an Ecuadorian security expert and professor at the School of Security and Defense of the State Graduate University’s Institute of Higher National Studies told Diálogo. “Ecuador borders the largest drug production center in Colombia, which is its southern border. This means that drug trafficking openly penetrates the economic, social and political structures of the state.”
The Ecuadorian Armed Forces have been intensifying military operations in the coastal province of Esmeraldas, due to the increase in criminality. Among the several reported successful blows to narco-terrorist groups, the January 22 seizure of 22 tons of cocaine in a farm in Estero Lagarto, a rural area of Los Ríos province, stands out.
“Ecuador does not produce coca leaf or convert it into cocaine but is a transit country from its border with Colombia, but also with Peru to Ecuadorian ports,” Simon Pachano, sociologist, PhD in political science and professor at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, told Salvadoran daily El Diario de Hoy. “This creates an internal situation of violence, because the drug trafficking groups use youth gangs, equivalent to El Salvador’s maras, to traffic from the borders to the ports.”
According to military intelligence, drugs enter through two routes from Colombia to Esmeraldas and Sucumbios. They are then transported by armed groups and allied gangs, Metro Ecuador reported.
Partner’s support
On January 22, U.S. Army General Laura J. Richardson, commander of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), arrived in Ecuador as part of a U.S. delegation visit. The group met with President Noboa, senior government officials, and high-ranking officers of the military forces to discuss ways to accelerate both nations’ cooperation against criminal organizations.
“We signed an aid agreement with the United States last year [2023]. And what the United States is actually doing is to expedite the arrival of that aid,” Navy Rear Admiral Jaime Vela, Chief of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces’ Joint Command, said at a press conference. “[Gen. Richardson] comes with the promise to increase the speed of delivery of the aid that was planned for Ecuador by the United States. That is excellent news.”
The first batch of U.S. aid to fight violence in Ecuador arrived on January 22. The delegation delivered more than 20,000 bulletproof vests and more than $1 million in critical security and emergency response equipment, including ambulances and logistics defense support vehicles, the White House said in a statement.
“The presence of these high [U.S.] authorities in Ecuador is a powerful and concrete political indication of support from the United States for the administration of President Daniel Noboa, in the non-international armed conflict against terrorism, drug trafficking, and transnational organized crime in all its manifestations, to restore peace to our citizens,” Ecuador’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility Gabriela Sommerfeld told the press. “It is also a confirmation of the strengthening of bilateral cooperation.”
“Ecuador is a valued and respected democratic partner. The ties between our militaries are as strong as the ties between our countries and our citizens. We stand with the people of Ecuador as your work to strengthen your security and defeat the criminal groups that seek to undermine the stability and security of Ecuador and the region,” Gen. Richardson said in a video message published by the U.S. Embassy in Quito. “We are united.”