Public Project
A journey through the world’s newest narco-state
Summary
Ecuador advances in its tragic transition to a full-fledged narco-state—with all its implications and all its deaths. Violence has infiltrated every dimension of daily life, turning fear and uncertainty into constants for ordinary people. From cities and their outskirts, held hostage by organized criminal groups, to rural areas that have become the gravesites of the human cost of gang wars, no one escapes the shadow of violence.
Ecuador, the source of one in every three bananas worldwide, has since the mid-2010s become a key player in the global drug trade. Shifting politics across Latin America, as well as within the cartels that dominate the drug trade, led to a rapid influx of organised criminal groups into Ecuador. There they found willing business partners among the country’s existing gangs, as well as the export infrastructure necessary to ship tonnes of cocaine around the world. Today, Ecuador advances in its tragic transition to a full-fledged narco-state—with all its implications and all its deaths. Violence has seeped into everyday life—cities gripped by cartels, rural areas turned into graves. No one escapes its shadow.
Story for '1843 Magazine' of The Economist
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Ecuador, origen de uno de cada tres plátanos consumidos en el mundo, se ha convertido desde mediados de la década de 2010 en un actor clave en el tráfico global de drogas. Los cambios políticos en América Latina, así como dentro de los carteles que dominan este negocio, provocaron una rápida entrada de grupos criminales organizados al país. Allí encontraron socios dispuestos entre las bandas locales, además de la infraestructura de exportación necesaria para enviar toneladas de cocaína alrededor del mundo. Hoy, Ecuador avanza en su trágica transición hacia un narcoestado. La violencia se ha filtrado en la vida cotidiana: ciudades atrapadas por los carteles, zonas rurales convertidas en tumbas. Nadie escapa a su sombra.
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