The situation in Ecuador can be described as war

Multiple governments have been unable to end the violence in Ecuador's everlasting drug war, while the nation itself becoming more and more a cocaine supply hub

Murder has become an sad routine in Events in Guayaquil. The port town has become the country's murder capital, a place where criminal violence is almost uncountable at this point. The range of those crimes begin with simple robbery and shockingly ends with bomb attacks. 

In recent years Guayaquil has become an graveyard for innocent civilians who found themselves between guns and bombs. The endless struggle to end one of the world's lesser known drug conflicts is escalating in recent years dramatically. 

Hundreds of disappearances have been reported this year around Guayaquil. Shocking footage of murder has been released on social media, celebrating often the violence conducted by gangs. Kidnappings are almost daily routines and there is no end to see.

In recent years, the South American country has experienced a circle of violence, with governments proving unable to solve the issue of organized crime. A few months ago, cartels conducted an mass hostage-taking in six prisons, in response to the prison transfer of a senior gang leader.

The violence seems not to stop and even Ecuador's Armed Forces cannot keep up with the strength of the cartels. Their large-build system of drug routes and ports has swapped multiple markets all over the world with drugs, mainly cocaine. While the so-called 'War of Drugs' is usually related to the situation in Mexico or Columbia, it's really Ecuador were things got worse in recent years.

While holding certain territories and routes, the Cartels in Ecuador also get aid from Mexican Cartels, who profit from the large amount of products produced in Ecuadorian Cartels.

However, the reach of the Cartels goes further then just simple drug production. Last August presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was killed by Cartel members. Villavicencio demanded an harsher fight against the Cartels, calling "for the brave" in his campaign. The death of Villavicencio, who was shot days before the election, shows the massive crisis Ecuador finds itself in. In a land, where Cartels are able to kill unwanted presidential candidates, no one can feel safe.

And no one is feeling safe anymore, especially not in Guayaquil. Here kidnappings have reached the 100s this year. Most of them won't return alive. In rare cases police can arrest gang members, but this don't stop them. The Cartels enjoy full control not just outside but also inside prisons. Even worse then you realize some prisons are being transformed to trade centers for drugs by the Cartels.

Drug trafficking is not new in Ecuador. It's location unfortunately fits the conditions Cartels need - sandwiched between the world's main cocaine producers, Colombia and Peru – having access to large forests and mountain areas to hide and important pacific ocean ports to export their goods in masses. Alone the amount of cocaine seized at the country's ports has tripled since 2020 to 77.4 tonnes last year.

But it was in recent years, when the scale of the accompanying violence really started to rise in never-expected highs. Ecuador saw 4,600 violent deaths in 2022, double the number of the previous year, and the country is about to break the record again with 3,568 violent deaths in the first half of 2023. Alone in Guayas, the province that includes Guayaquil, nearly 1,700 people have been murdered so far this year.

So-called "vacunas", protection money has to be paid every week by the inhabitants. It costs 5$ and whoever refuses to pay has to face harsh consequences. From kidnapping in order to force people paying till planned murder or even bomb attacks - the variety of punishment is horrific.

Alone last year Ecuador saw over 140 bomb attacks, half of them in Guayaquil. In an open letter addressed to President Guillermo Lasso, Guayaquil's mayor wrote that "criminal gangs have become a state within a state".

All those events have become an reason for civilians to pack their things and flee the endless violence. More than 822,000 between the ages of 18 and 45 left in the first half of this year and 1.4 million Ecuadorians migrated in 2022. The feared Darién Gap, an jungle between the border crossings of Panama and Columbia, where every year hundreds of immigrants loose their lives, has seen an record number of crossings this year. Nearly 35.000 people tried to cross this dangerous area according to Panama's migration office - many of them Ecuadorians.

Poverty, unemployment and the never-ending violence drive many people out of Ecuador lately.

A United Nations report released this year said the surge in violence in Ecuador was a wake-up call to urgently address poverty. "A lack of job opportunities and poor education have made young people easy recruits for criminal gangs," said Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

A few years ago Ecuador was one of the safest nations in South America. In the last 3 years homicides have risen in an unimaginable speed and the struggle against drug Cartels have become more then an police job. Thousands of people leave the country, not believing the politician's promises anymore, seeking to escape an true powder keg which every day gets closer to explosion. The situation in Ecuador is an war and therefore has to be addressed like an war.