Flash News

Online fraud scheme discovered, AKSK appeals to citizens: how to protect yourself

Imam Ahmed Kalaja faces up to 3 years in prison, accused of obstruction of justice

Pyrotechnics near the Polytechnic University, police seize materials and launch investigations

Shots in Allias, the 31-year-old is shot by the neighbor, the perpetrator disappears after the incident

Posta e mëngjesit/ Me 2 rreshta: Çfarë pati rëndësi dje në Shqipëri

E-TJERA

The 'live' kidnapping on the show, 'The Economist': How Ecuador became the deadliest country in Latin America, the role of the Albanian mafia

Politiko 2024-01-11 10:08:11

The 'live' kidnapping on the show, 'The Economist': How

One of Ecuador's most watched news programs, El Noticiero, was broadcasting live when gunmen entered the studio.

Cameras rolled as hooded gangsters pistol-whipped staff on the floor. They then took to the air for 15 minutes, waving gang signs to stunned onlookers and taking selfies while brandishing machetes, dynamite and machine guns.

The violence, broadcast across the country on the afternoon of January 9 by a state channel, tc Televisión, shocked Ecuadorians as chaos gripped the country this week.  

In 2019 it was one of the safest countries in Latin America, with a homicide rate of 6.7 per 100,000 inhabitants. Some Ecuadorian sources estimate that by 2023 the homicide rate will have increased more than sixfold, to 45 per 100,000 inhabitants, making their country the deadliest in continental Latin America, writes The Economist. 

Ecuador, particularly its port of Guayaquil, became a more important hub for the shipment of cocaine from Peru and Colombia after Colombian ports tightened their security in 2009. The trade had previously been monopolized by the FARC, a powerful Colombian guerrilla group. which kept violence to a minimum. But after Farc signed a peace deal in 2016, most of its members demobilized. Local, regional and international bands poured in to fill the vacuum. The Mexican cartels have financed the Ecuadorian ones. The Albanian mafia has expanded its presence in Ecuador as well. Such a rapid influx of international organized crime was facilitated by Ecuador's dollarized economy and lax visa requirements for foreigners.

Ecuadorian gangsters like Macias have become kings. Los Choneros and other local gangs are believed to have armed themselves with weapons carried by their Mexican patrons for the cocaine shipments. They now possess machine guns, rifles and grenades that enable them to face Ecuador's poorly trained armed forces.

Ecuadorian gangs have generated cash flow by creating a profitable base in Europe, where cocaine consumption is on the rise. The busiest cocaine-trafficking route in the world today runs from Guayaquil to the port of Antwerp in Belgium, according to Chris Dalby of World of Crime, a Netherlands-based investigative group. Much of this cocaine is packed into shipping containers containing bananas, one of Ecuador's biggest exports. Europe's demand "has turned Ecuadorian ports into one of the most valuable pieces of infrastructure you can control if you're a drug-trafficking group in Latin America," says Will Freeman of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

This money allows gangs to buy off prison guards. Macias and other gang leaders have turned perhaps a quarter of Ecuador's 36 prisons into their headquarters, from where they stage attacks and recruit new members. Macias escaped shortly before being transferred to a more secure unit in the prison complex. He must have been tipped off by corrupt officials.

Corruption of this kind is widespread. In 2023, the police began investigating several government officials for ties to the Albanian mafia. Months later the prime suspect was found dead. In 2022, 25 air force officials were convicted of sabotaging radar equipment that monitored drug gang activity in Ecuadorian airspace.

 

Latest news