An increasingly fragmented underworld has turned Ecuador into a battleground, with rival gangs driving violence to record levels in recent years. Many factors have fueled this crisis, but one criminal figure in particular propelled Ecuador to this moment: Jorge Luis Zambrano, alias “JL,” or “Rasquiña.”
SEE ALSO: Jorge Luis Zambrano, alias “Rasquiña” Criminal Profile
Rasquiña’s leading role in Ecuador’s criminal scene began in the 2010s. From within the country’s prisons, he turned the Choneros from a gang of common street thugs into a national criminal federation by recruiting youth gangs and groups of thieves, extortionists, and micro-traffickers. Among them were the men who would go on to become the faces of Ecuador’s security crisis: a bank robber and future leader of the Lobos, Wilmer Geovanny Chavarría Barré, alias “Pipo;” a corrupt prison guard who later founded the Tiguerones, William Joffre Alcívar Bautista, alias “Willy;” and the Camacho brothers, leaders of a local youth gang that became the Chone Killers.
Under the umbrella of the Choneros, this network of gangs took over the prisons, then launched an aggressive campaign to seize strategic drug trafficking territories around the country. Rasquiña used his gang network as a mercenary criminal army to provide services to transnational drug traffickers, like Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, and corruption networks. The model of organized crime he developed endures today, with gangs acting as contractors for criminal elites.
In 2020, Rasquiña was murdered shortly after being released from prison in an allegedly corrupt judicial ruling. The alleged gunman was arrested, but the intellectual author behind the hit remains unknown. One theory suggests that Rasquiña was the victim of an internal mutiny led by his right-hand man, José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito.” Others point to a calculated power grab by the rapidly ascending Lobos, or that the hit was ordered by drug traffickers wary of Rasquiña’s growing power. The murder led to the breakup of the Choneros network, kickstarting a process of criminal atomization that has continued ever since.
SEE ALSO: Rasquiña’s Revolution: How the Choneros Took Ecuador’s Prisons
The Lobos, Tiguerones, and Chone Killers formed a new alliance dubbed Nueva Generación (New Generation) and waged war on the Choneros, sending murder rates spiralling. But that alliance was short-lived and gave way to an era characterized by fragmentation, with the gangs splintering into highly unpredictable, constantly shapeshifting and fracturing cells that forge volatile alliances and compete violently for territory. Today, Ecuador faces as many as 48 criminal groups, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) data reported by Diálogo Américas.
In 2024, President Noboa declared the country was in an internal armed conflict with 22 gangs he labeled as terrorist organizations. The United States would later follow suit, adding the Choneros, the Lobos, the Tiguerones, and the Chone Killers to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Each of them was once part of Rasquiña’s Choneros federation.
Read more about Rasquiña’s criminal history and legacy in our InSight Crime profile here.
