The Choneros are one of Ecuador’s most prominent criminal groups and a leading actor in the violence that has destabilized the country in recent years. The Choneros first emerged in the 1990s as a local gang in Ecuador’s western province of Manabí. However, the arrest of gang leaders in 2011 sparked a decade of evolution.

From behind bars, the Choneros united smaller gangs under their banner to build up a criminal federation that dominated the prison system and expanded around the country. Using the prisons as an operations base, they established themselves as key service providers for transnational drug trafficking organizations, while also running local-level criminal economies in territories under their control.

The murder of their charismatic leader, Jorge Luis Zambrano, alias “Rasquiña” or “JL,” in 2020 led to the breakup of that federation as the different factions turned on each other, waging a war inside and outside the prisons, which fueled levels of criminal violence previously unseen in Ecuador.

While Rasquiña’s successor, José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito,” would go on to become one of the most notorious figures in Ecuador’s criminal history, the Choneros entered a period of decline, which has accelerated since Fito’s arrest in 2025.

What Is the Choneros’ story?

The Choneros take their name from the Manabí town of Chone, where they started operating in the 1990s under the leadership of Jorge Bismarck Véliz España, alias “Teniente España.” The gang expanded into the nearby city of Manta, where it carried out robberies, kidnappings, and assassinations and ran microtrafficking and extortion rackets.

In the early 2000s, a violent conflict with their rivals, the Queseros, would raise the Choneros’ public profile. While the Choneros would eventually emerge victorious, it would come at the cost of the life of Teniente España, who was killed in a clash with the Queseros in 2007. It would also draw the attention of the police, who killed several of Teniente España’s successors.

By 2011, leadership had passed to Rasquiña, aided by his top lieutenant, Fito. However, both men were arrested on murder charges that same year and sent to the maximum security prison La Roca. In 2013, they staged a cinematic escape from La Roca but were recaptured some months later. At that point, they turned their attention to reforming the Choneros from within the prisons.

Rasquiña recruited gangs of robbers, extortionists, and microtraffickers, as well as factions of youth gangs such as the Ñetas and the Vatos Locos, converting the group into a federation of smaller organizations behind bars united under Rasquiña’s leadership. As these gangs also maintained operations on the outside, the process allowed the Choneros to simultaneously expand around the country. Rasquiña then hired out his new army to criminal elites, including transnational drug traffickers, to whom he provided logistical and security services.

In 2020, Rasquiña was murdered six months after securing his early release from prison in an allegedly corrupt court ruling. After his killing, several factions, most prominently the Lobos, the Tiguerones, and the Chone Killers broke away to form a new coalition and went to war with what remained of the Choneros.

The conflict led to a series of brutal massacres in the prisons that claimed hundreds of lives and sent violence rates in Ecuador through the roof. By 2023, Fito, who had taken over after Rasquiña’s murder, had repaired relations with the Chone Killers and the Tiguerones, changing the tide of the conflict. But the Lobos remained firm in their opposition to the Choneros and the fighting continued.

In early 2024, Fito escaped from prison ahead of plans to transfer him to La Roca. The subsequent fallout saw a military intervention in the prisons and on the streets that targeted the Choneros as well as their allies and enemies, as well as a countrywide offensive by the prison gangs, including the takeover of a live television broadcast.

Fito remained on the run until June 2025, when authorities tracked him down to a luxury bunker in Montecristi, a small town just a few kilometers south of Manta. Within a month, he had been extradited to the United States.  Since then, authorities have targeted what remains of the Choneros network, capturing several figures touted as possible successors to Fito, among them his brother Ronald Javier Macías Villamar, alias “Javi.”   

Who Leads the Choneros?

Rasquiña was a venerated figure in Ecuador’s criminal underworld who earned not only respect and loyalty but a near-mythical status. Under his leadership, the Choneros permitted the different factions that comprised the gang’s federation to retain their structures and a level of autonomy as long as they answered to him.

Amid the fallout from Rasquiña’s murder, Fito inherited the top leadership position of the Choneros. He maintained some semblance of the group’s previous federation structure, running his faction, the Fatales, and allowing his top lieutenant, Junior Roldán, alias “JR,” to do the same with his faction, the Águilas.

Fito established a structure consisting of often incarcerated regional commanders, who answered to him while managing the operations of the gang’s street level and prison networks.

However, this system has weakened over time. JR was reportedly killed in 2023, although rumors have circulated that his death was staged. The following year, Fito’s escape and the subsequent military intervention in the prisons disrupted the lines of command. While both Choneros sources and US authorities asserted he continued to manage the organization from hiding, the stability of the Choneros network steadily eroded. Since Fito’s extradition, there is no clear successor capable of exerting the same levels of influence in an ever more fractious and fragmented criminal landscape.

Where Do the Choneros Operate?

The Choneros’ historical stronghold is their home province of Manabí, in particular the city of Manta. This grants the group control over one of the principal drug trafficking corridors used to reach Mexico and Central America. From this base, they have expanded around the country.

According to information provided by the Ministry of Defense and former intelligence officials, by the start of 2024, the Choneros or their sub-factions, the Águilas and the Fatales, were present in 10 of Ecuador’s 24 provinces.

Within the prison system, the Choneros had total control of the La Regional prison in Guayaquil, which was the group’s criminal command center until the 2024 military intervention. They also had total control over Rodeo prison in Manabí and several smaller prisons, along with several wings in Ecuador’s biggest prison, known as Litoral, in Guayaquil. However, that stranglehold was also disrupted by the military intervention in 2024.

Since then, the Choneros control has slipped, both inside the prisons and outside, with the group even losing ground to its rivals in Manabí.

Who Are the Choneros’ Allies and Enemies?

From the late 1990s until the late 2000s, the Choneros’ primary enemy was the Queseros, a rival gang operating in Manta. After reconstituting themselves as a prison gang, the Choneros’ chief rivals became a coalition of Guayaquil street gangs that would later unite under the umbrella of the Lagartos. The breakup of the Choneros federation after Rasquiña’s death turned a host of former Choneros factions into their enemies. Most prominent among them were the Lobos, the Tiguerones, and the Chone Killers. 

The Tiguerones and the Chone Killers later reunited with the Choneros, albeit as partners rather than subordinate factions. The Choneros broader network has also included alliances with multiple smaller gangs nationwide. However, as the Ecuadorian underworld becomes increasingly atomized, these ties are weakening. 

The Choneros have long worked with national and international drug traffickers, among them Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.

What Lies Ahead for the Choneros?

Since their formation, the Choneros have survived multiple setbacks, from the capture and killings of key leaders to the nationwide conflict against their former factions and the military intervention in the prisons. In doing so, they have demonstrated resilience and the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances.

However, following the recapture of Fito in mid-2025, the group is at its weakest since Rasquiña first reformed the organization from within the prisons in the 2010s. With the atomization of the Ecuadorian underworld accelerating, the Choneros’ days as a unified network with a national reach could be coming to an end.