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Ecuador, wedged between Colombia and Peru, was once known as an island of peace in the Andes. In 2020, its homicide rate was 6.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the lowest in the region.
Today, drug trafficking and associated gang violence have fractured this peace. In January 2024, cartel members, armed with explosives, took television broadcasters hostage in front of a live audience. Prisoners from the major cartels posted videos of themselves holding knives to the necks of the guards. Gang leaders staged a jailbreak. The recently inaugurated President, Daniel Noboa, declared a state of emergency, casting the country into lockdown.
At 44.5 homicides per 100,000 people, Ecuador’s homicide rate is now beyond that of Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras, and the highest in South America. Children and youth are particularly targeted, experiencing a 640% increase in child homicides since 2019. Increasing numbers of people are being displaced: after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians are now the second most intercepted population in the Darien Gap, the infamously dangerous border crossing from Colombia to Panama.
Yesterday, Noboa was reelected, beating leftist candidate Luisa González. Noboa has taken his win as a mandate to continue his iron-fisted approach to tackling the country’s spiraling security crisis. González refuses to accept the result, citing concerns that Noboa manipulated the vote by declaring a state of emergency in seven states only days before the election. To situate the election results, USCRI explores Ecuador’s ongoing crisis of crime and displacement.
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