Ecuador
Ecuador’s geographic location and other environmental characteristics have long provided incentives for transnational organized crime groups to exploit the country as a drug transshipment point and a logistical safe haven.
Latest News
Latin American Leaders Voice Security Concerns At United Nations General Assembly
NEWS
/
23 SEP 2022
As world leaders met for the United Nations General Assembly, Latin American presidents expressed various concerns about organized crime.
Illegal Fishing in Latin America - Experts Consider Answers to Tough Questions at Event
NEWS
/
12 SEP 2022
The consequences of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing are immediate and enormous across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Prosecutors in Ecuador Become Latest Victims of Targeted Assassinations
NEWS
/
19 AUG 2022
Two subjects on a motorcycle attacked prosecutor Federico Estrella outside his home in Babahoyo, Los Ríos, on August 15. Estrella had been investigating several violent murders in Babahoyo, according to…
Ecuador Profile
Ecuador’s geographic location and other environmental characteristics have long provided incentives for transnational organized crime groups to exploit the country as a drug transshipment point and a logistical safe haven. Ecuador’s diverse transnational criminal landscape, dominated mainly by Colombian criminal and guerrilla groups as well as Mexican cartels, has led some to describe it as the “United Nations” of organized crime.
Once considered one of the most insecure countries in the region, Ecuador has succeeded in tackling certain manifestations of violence in recent years. But drug trafficking through the country is on the rise, paving the way for possible growing insecurity further down the road.
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ECUADOR
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16 AUG 2022
Gang warfare is pushing violence in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, where a bomb attack claimed five lives.
ECUADOR
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3 AUG 2022
Ecuador is a hotspot for landing massive amounts of shark catch, and the nation is among the world’s biggest exporters of shark fins.
BRAZIL
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26 JUL 2022
Indigenous communities in Brazil are using drones to fight deforestation and the frequent assaults of loggers on their lands.
ECUADOR
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21 JUL 2022
Ecuador's complicated gang violence has been worsened by the bloody rise of R7, a small-time but brutal gang.
COCAINE
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7 JUL 2022
Ahmet Yilmaz* shouldn’t be in a dangerous profession. He’s not a cop or a criminal. Ahmet is a banana importer in Turkey. “This is my third decade in the industry,”…
COCAINE
/
29 JUN 2022
Turkish and foreign law enforcement have seized record quantities of cocaine heading from South America to Turkey, revealing the growing role of the country’s powerful traffickers in the transit of…
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