"Freddy Kruegers" and "Peaky Blinders": The mafias terrorizing Ecuador

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Ecuador astatine warfare with cause gangs

Ecuador's president says state is astatine warfare with cause gangs 03:15

Ecuadorans spell to the polls connected Sunday nether the shadiness of surging cause violence and a troubling detonation successful the fig of section gangs and mafias.

A flood of cocaine from Colombia and Peru done Ecuadoran ports has drawn a who's who of mafias from Albania to Italy to Mexico to this once-safe Andean nation.

But it has besides created a plethora of homegrown groups with striking names and ferocious reputations.

"Los Freddy Kruegers" origin nightmares successful the streets, "The Ugly Women's Headquarters" tally jails and "The Peaky Blinders" effort to regularisation the waves of a cardinal coastal zone.

Together they and galore different groups terrorize citizens done campaigns of extortion, kidnap and murder.

In January and February, Ecuador recorded much than 1 decease each hour, according to figures from the Interior Ministry.

The mafias "have been gaining space; it is analyzable to combat them," admits Guayaquil's constabulary commander, Pablo Davila.

The concern has enactment information astatine the halfway of Sunday's statesmanlike runoff betwixt incumbent Daniel Noboa and leftist campaigner Luisa Gonzalez.

Noboa declared a state of exigency and deployed troops in the streets and violence-riddled prisons, resulting successful a flimsy dip successful homicide rates successful 2024 from the erstwhile year. The president took enactment past twelvemonth after gunmen stormed and opened fire in a TV workplace and bandits threatened random executions of civilians and information forces. A authoritative investigating the battle was later shot dead.

"They demanded $15,000 not to termination us"

One merchant remembers the time a weaponry exploded successful her edifice successful Guayaquil, the economical and transgression superior of the country.

"They said they were from the mafia. They demanded $15,000 not to termination us," the woman, who asked not to beryllium named for her safety, told AFP.

Many section gangs person teamed up with overmuch larger cartels from Mexico and Colombia, arsenic good arsenic Albanian and Italian mafias.

But the section gangs person besides fractured and proliferated arsenic they look for their ain ever-bigger portion of the pie.

"The warfare is implicit territory. There aren't known leaders similar before. Everyone wants their independence," said the caput of 1 pack connected information of anonymity.

The concern is causing superior headaches for Ecuadoran information services, who indispensable present stitchery quality and enactment against an ever-changing panoply of actors.

Security adept Carla Alvarez compares the concern to the chaos of 1990s Colombia.

"We spot an relation of small, little rigid groups. This already happened successful Colombia successful the 1990s aft the decease of Pablo Escobar," she said.

In Ecuador, hierarchies began to interruption successful 2018 erstwhile 1 of the largest organizations split.

The decease of "Choneros" person Jorge Luis Zambrano successful 2020 near a powerfulness vacuum.

The interaction is present felt adjacent successful comparatively harmless Quito, erstwhile a haven from cause violence, but progressively connected the beforehand lines.

There, edifice worker Marianela receives threats and extortion via WhatsApp. "I artifact them," she said.

But determination is nary ignoring the unit connected the streets of her Martha Bucaram neighborhood.

Police and subject regularly appear, hunting for weapons and drugs. "There were astir 2 dormant present connected the corner," she said, recalling a caller shootout.

Carolina Andrade, a municipal information secretary, admits that without the information beingness of hard-hit Guayaquil, the superior is seen arsenic "a harmless abstraction to travel and hide."

As caller alliances and actors emerge, determination whitethorn beryllium worse to come.

Multiple smaller gangs are present trying to articulation "larger organizations to person greater presence, legitimacy, and territorial control," Andrade said.

At slightest 2 high-profile Ecuadorian pack leaders targeted by the U.S. person made headlines this year. Earlier this month, the fugitive person of "Los Cheronos" that relied connected hitmen, bribes and subject weapons to bash concern was indicted successful New York City connected charges helium imported thousands of pounds of cocaine into the United States. José Adolfo Macías Villamar — whose nickname is "Fito" — escaped from a situation successful Ecuador past twelvemonth and is not successful U.S. custody.

In 2024, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on "Los Choneros."

Earlier this year, a person of 1 of Ecuador's biggest transgression syndicates, "Los Lobos," was arrested astatine his home in the coastal metropolis of Portoviejo. Carlos D, wide known by his alias "El Chino," was the second-in-command of "Los Lobos" and "considered a high-value target," the equipped forces said successful a statement.

The U.S. past twelvemonth declared Los Lobos to beryllium the largest cause trafficking enactment successful Ecuador.