Spiraling gang violence in Ecuador: Who is in control? | DW News

Spiraling gang violence in Ecuador: Who is in control? | DW News

We Begin the day with the question that they are asking in Ecuador tonight who is in charge who is in control 24 hours ago the entire nation watched as gunmen stormed a live TV broadcast they were armed with explosives and they demanded to be heard their message according to

Ecuador’s president was one of Terror and one too many tonight across Ecuador soldiers are patrolling the streets a nighttime curfew is in effect and it remains to be seen if this Crackdown will have a lasting impact for years violence has gone from bad to worse in Ecuador drug cartels Waging War against

Each other in prisons and on the streets to control the routes used to traffic cocaine made in South America consumed in the US and here in Europe police engage with a group of gunmen during a raid in southern Ecuador the Army says it’s stepping up its offensive against the powerful drug

Gangs who are behind the violence across the country the shootout took place in the city of wakas near the border with Peru which says it’s stepping up its patrols along the frontier to stop the violence spilling into its Territory throughout Ecuador security units have been out in force trying to reassure citizens of their safety authorities say they doing what they can but they can’t be everywhere at once this footage shows armed gang members setting fire to cars in the country’s North in broad daylight and the gang’s Terror tactics

Appear to be working people on the streets say they’re scared sadness and fear is something we all have right now but we don’t know what to do because in reality we can’t do anything people are afraid they don’t want to go out anymore businesses are closing so as

A citizen I’m very scared of what’s happening right now in Ecuador the security situation hit the national and international headlines on Tuesday when heavily armed Naros stormed a TV station in Ecuador’s largest city gak Kil during a live news broadcast the masked gunmen said they were there to warn ecuadorians not to

Mess with the Mafia the attack was Swift and violent they shot one of our cameramen in the leg broke the arm of another one they fired bullets they used their weapons inside about 30 minutes after the gunman appeared police could be seen entering the TV station the gangsters were captured but

The attack left ecuadorians horrified Ecuador has struggled for years with violence tied to drug trafficking including homicides and kidnapping but now the President says Ecuador is at war with the gangs and he’s announced a state of emergency for at least 60 days during this time officials can suspend people’s rights and mobilize the

Army including in prisons well I’m joined Now by Steven Dudley he’s the co-founder and co-director of insight crime that is a think tank in Washington DC that investigate organized crime in the Americas I think you’re the definitely the right man to talk to tonight it’s good to have you with us Ecuador sounds

Like it is descending if if it sounds like it’s Civil War at some level if not Anarchy is that what we’re looking at well that might be a slight exaggeration certainly they are having extreme problems with criminal groups um a civil war would require some sort of politics behind this but this mostly

Appears to be criminal in nature in the decree that the President issued yesterday he named 22 different criminal groups which really gets you to the heart of the problem this isn’t just one group they have to Corral these are 22 different groups a number of them Stand

Out above the others but nonetheless the problem will be there which is that they are an atomized series of Criminal organizations some of them with connections to International groups as well so this is Extreme ex complex and Mr Dudley explain to us how have the drug cartels how have they gained so

Much power in Ecuador I mean Ecuador is not a main producer of cocaine if that’s the drug of choice we’re talking about it’s not a producer but it sits next to the largest producer in the world that producer is Colombia and it has been increasing its production over the last several years simultaneously

Places like Europe and Asia have become greater consumers of cocaine so Ecuador has become a greater Transit uh a point of transit in a much greater capacity than it was in the past this is the source of much of the fighting and much of the growth of criminal gangs in in

Ecuador which by the way also got their start inside of prisons in Ecuador so this is this is something that has institutional failures built into it but also economics connected to the international drug trade yeah and and and what do we know about these gang leaders that you say the the locus of

Power or recruitment is the prisons but are these gang leaders are they are they more than just uh you know criminal drug trafficking thugs yeah well I mean they they they vary in nature of course um many of them have been housed in prisons for the last several years prisons have offered them

A number of different possibilities and I know it sounds strange to people’s ears when when someone says that but in a way it’s it’s kind of a a place of respit a place where you can organize a place where you can recruit a place where you can set up sort of systematic

Ways in which you can uh take action in criminal activities outside of prison which is exactly what these leaders have done one of whom was the one who escaped the other day was a member of the probably the most powerful one of the most powerful if not the most powerful

Group in Ecuador currently called the tornadoes so these are these are different types of of of criminal leaders and criminal organizations with intersections um with international criminal groups that have given them increasing amounts of power in some instance Firepower knowledge knowhow um you know other series of advantages that

They didn’t necessarily have uh five years ago or so you know the argument is the the drug Supply would not be there if we didn’t have the drug demand particularly in the United States and here in Europe that said um and and knowing that the demand is not going to

Go down anytime soon does the government in Ecuador in your opinion do they have a strategy to regain control and to keep these cartels in check well it was interesting to watch the presidential campaign play out over the last few months and and initially all of the candidates had very serious

Uh programs that were mid to longterm you know very much socially-minded programs you know not very heavy-handed but as things have gotten more violent and in particular after the assassination of one of their fellow presidential candidates um last year you know everything got ratcheted up in

Terms of their rhetoric and in terms of their policies as well we’re seeing them now we seeing the the new president the fairly new inaugurated president NOOA um go at this with a very heavy hand and the problem is they don’t have the foundation upon which they can fight

This type of battle so it’s a it’s a long road they’re facing um but that but right now they they are just scrambling just to sort of get their hands around the current situation which is as you pointed out at the at the onset Spilled Out of Control Steven Dudley joining us

From Washington Mr Dudley we appreciate your time and valuable insights tonight thank you thank you well for more now I’m joined by journalist andreana aragi she joins us from the Ecuadorian Capital Kito andrean it’s good to see you we spoke 24 hours ago when this crisis was really erupting

Tell me what’s the difference in the security situation in Ecuador tonight compared to last night hello well today everything is a little bit calmer even though we have had a couple of uh violent acts uh throughout the country uh we had one explosion here in Kito but it was

Actually very minor compared to what we watched yesterday yeah the president has declared a state of internal armed conflict that sounds something maybe close to to a civil war maybe or maybe not what what does that mean to you we haven’t had uh that kind of measures before um the recent

Governments haven’t been able to take that decision but this means that um the 22 gangs that the government um listed last night are considered now terrorist uh groups and this means that they are military objectives right now so the military forces that are on the streets are on

The lookout for these people and and what what’s their ultimate goal here then if they don’t want to run the country is it just about controlling the the pathways the routs that are used to to traffic drugs is that what this is all about that’s what the government says

And we believe so because since the drug trafficking world is changing and the market is Shifting uh many of the operations from these uh trug cartels have been running here from Ecuador and the drugs have been going from here to Europe uh and to the United States so we

Think that yes they want to keep the business running from here uh as they have been doing for the past 3 years how do you explain what has happened in Ecuador you know Ecuador used to be considered in the United States a a paradise for people to retire to they

Don’t retire to Ecuador anymore um how did the drug gangs how did they gain so much power so quickly well we believe everything started like um after we changed governments after Rafael Korea and everything in the state started to change the authorities started to change and with those political changes uh in

The administration the drug the drug cartels they started to gain power inside the the public system inside the police the justice system the military forces so that’s why right now we are like seeing what has been happening for this past five years especially the last three years it has been really difficult

Uh for the government to try to maintain control of the country and to uh have a really um a really good justice system because we don’t have that but let me ask you before we run out of time do you think this President and this government

Do they have the answer the strategy to regain control and control that lasts we don’t know that so far because the government has been really secretive about their security plans and they keep that argument out to the public but uh president Daniel Novoa he is actually doing things a little bit different from

What we were used to and uh we are just hoping to see if these measures uh take effect and change what we have been seeing for the last three years all right journalist andreana Ari with the latest unv volatile events happening in Ecuador andreana we appreciate your reporting thank you

Ecuador’s president has declared war on drug gangs amid spiraling violence.
Soldiers are patrolling the streets and schools and shops are closed in many big cities.
Unrest broke out when a state of emergency was declared over a drug lord’s prison escape. Inmates are holding more than 100 prison staff hostage. Gunmen also stormed a news station and held journalists captive on live TV.

00:00 Background
03:18 Steven Dudley, InSight Crime
08:33 Adriana Noboa Arregui, Journalist

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