Recent reports of a group called the Border Command (Comandos de la Frontera) in the department of Putumayo, located on the border between Colombia and Ecuador, have caused alarm. However,…
The pace of eco-trafficking in Latin America does not appear to have slowed under the coronavirus pandemic, with the smuggling of maritime species being particularly active.
While stark images of bodies in makeshift coffins left outside houses revealed how severely Ecuador's healthcare system had collapsed during the coronavirus pandemic, some found opportunity to turn a morbid…
A new report sheds light on US authorities' controversial practice of detaining Ecuadorian fishermen acting as drug mules in international waters and holding them captive on off-shore "prison ships," often…
In a year marked by political and criminal turmoil, Latin American capitals did not escape the effects of the violence, organized crime and state repression experienced throughout the region.
For Ecuador, the death of one of the country’s most notorious homegrown drug traffickers was the end of an era. But for his Mexican bosses, Telmo Castro’s demise will do…
Unrest gripped much of Latin America and the Caribbean throughout 2019. From record violence in Mexico that recalled the darkest days of the drug war, to…
The criminal, economic and political dynamics behind illegal gold rushes this past year in Venezuela and Ecuador were very different. But both countries illustrate the same trend: that illegal mining…
Before the call dropped, Bexy learned the hazardous details of Manuel’s journey. Desperate to find money to rebuild their home, he had agreed to transport cocaine to the US in…
Gerald’s rise to becoming one of the most notorious drug traffickers Ecuador has produced to date was meteoric. But his fall has been just as dramatic, exposing not only the…
A massive flow of smuggled fuel from Ecuador into Colombia is benefiting drug traffickers who use it to produce cocaine and to gas up boats moving drugs.
In January 2019, heavily armed gunmen traveling in a truck and on a motorbike ambushed a small group of anti-narcotics agents in Sucumbíos, the Ecuadorean province that borders Colombia in…