Ecuador, South America's most violent country: organised crime and drug trafficking spiralling out of control
Ecuador has gone from being one of South America's safest countries to the most violent in less than a decade. Crisisgroup.org analyses the causes and outstanding challenges.
Ecuador: from peace haven to drug-trafficking epicentre in less than ten years
According to crisisgroup.org, Ecuador has gone from being one of South America's safest countries to the most violent in less than a decade, after becoming a central hub for cocaine trafficking destined for Europe and the United States. President Daniel Noboa's hard-line policy initially reduced homicide rates, but violence surged sharply: the first half of 2025 was the most violent semester recorded in the country's history.
After nearly two years of a self-proclaimed war against criminal groups, joint operations between military and police forces—the cornerstone of the repression campaign—have yielded only fleeting successes. The fall in the homicide rate in 2024 from record levels and a reduction in prison disturbances seemed like positive omens, but the abrupt spike in murders in 2025 wiped out those gains.
How Ecuador became a cocaine export route
Ecuador had functioned for decades as a transit corridor, thanks to its strategic position between Colombia and Peru, two of the world's largest coca producers. A series of changes in Latin American drug trafficking accelerated its transformation into an export platform: the dismantling of large cartels, the boom in maritime container trafficking, and the repercussions of Colombia's 2016 peace agreement reshaped the routes of the illicit business.
Organised crime found especially favourable conditions in Ecuador. The adoption of the US dollar as official currency in 2000—a decision taken to halt financial collapse—facilitated money laundering. The busy maritime ports, an extensive network of roads and weak border controls simplify drug transport. Budget cuts in 2017 to prisons and security forces worsened institutional corruption and undermined the state's capacity to respond. Because of all this, Ecuador's Pacific ports, particularly those in Guayaquil, have become the most efficient exit points for cocaine shipments towards Europe and the United States.
Criminal fragmentation and territorial warfare
The 2020 fragmentation of Los Choneros—previously the dominant illegal organisation—triggered a brutal territorial war, especially with Los Lobos, a rapidly growing group. Mexican organisations have fuelled these internal struggles: the Sinaloa Cartel supports Los Choneros and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel backs Los Lobos.
Dozens of smaller gangs, many rooted in poor neighbourhoods lacking basic services and employment opportunities, compete to dominate local drug markets and extortion networks, whilst attempting to prove their worth to larger, better-financed organisations.
The Pacific coastal provinces remain the epicentre of violence. The murders of judges, prison officials and mayors, clashes between rival groups, car bomb attacks and crimes against extortion victims accumulate. Entire communities are divided by invisible borders that mark the operational zones of rival gangs, forcing families to abandon their homes in search of safety.
Abuses and military cooperation as the state's response
Ecuadorian authorities have declared that the country is in the midst of an internal armed conflict and have deployed troops in prisons and in the most affected communities. The Noboa government has expanded cooperation with the US military and with private security companies, and has emphasised its political proximity to President Donald Trump.
However, crisisgroup.org warns that military operations, by themselves, rarely succeed in dismantling drug-trafficking markets. At the same time, allegations of abuses by security forces are mounting: arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial killings are among the documented cases.
What is needed to halt the violence
The crisisgroup.org analysis points out that Ecuador must strengthen state presence in neighbourhoods hardest hit by crime and generate legitimate economic opportunities in those areas, in parallel with security operations. Poor communities, especially along the Pacific coast, languish under the control of hyper-violent groups fighting for territorial dominance.
Combating corruption in ports, prisons and public institutions is equally essential. Without these structural reforms, the report considers that Ecuador risks losing its battle for public security, regardless of how many military personnel are deployed. Cocaine, in industrial quantities, continues to exit Ecuador's ports towards markets in the United States and Europe whilst the debate over strategy remains open.
Source: Google News ES — Crime (es)