Current:Home > MyAP PHOTOS: Surge in gang violence upends life in Ecuador-InfoLens
AP PHOTOS: Surge in gang violence upends life in Ecuador
View Date:2024-12-23 13:05:18
DURAN, Ecuador (AP) — Dismembered limbs lie on the street next to playing children. Prisons are arenas of gang warfare. Bloodshed keeps schools shut down. And a presidential candidate is assassinated in broad daylight.
This is the new Ecuador.
The South American nation of 18 million people was long a spot of calm in a region shaken by political upheaval, economic turmoil and guerrilla warfare. But a wave of criminal violence has surged in recent years, upending life for Ecuadorians.
The bloodshed is a product of narco gangs tiring of playing cat-and-mouse with the authorities in more militarized countries like Colombia and Mexico. They are seeking out smuggling routes in new countries with less vigilance.
Authorities documented 4,603 homicides in 2022, nearly doubling the toll of the previous year and making Ecuador one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America.
This year, violence and drug seizures have only continued to soar in the lead-up to the country’s presidential run-off election Oct. 15.
Nowhere has been hit harder than Guayaquil, Ecuador’s biggest city and home to the country’s most bustling port, from which drugs and other illegal goods pour out.
Gunshots regularly ring out, their sounds reverberating over multi-colored homes that wind up into the mountains overlooking the nearby Pacific. Tension grips the streets, where heavily armed police and soldiers patrol and sometimes roar by atop tanks.
As the government struggles to keep an emerging flock of narco groups at bay, things came to a head in August when an anti-corruption presidential hopeful, Fernando Villavicencio, was gunned down while leaving a campaign event less than two weeks before the first round of the presidential election.
Shortly before his death, the candidate had sent a message: “I’m not scared.”
Few others in the Andean nation can say the same.
——
AP reporter Megan Janetsky contributed to this report from Mexico City.
veryGood! (93)
Related
- Mariah Carey's Amazon Holiday Merch Is All I Want for Christmas—and It's Selling Out Fast!
- El Chapo’s son pleads not guilty to narcotics, money laundering and firearms charges
- Georgia website that lets people cancel voter registrations briefly displayed personal data
- Team USA Olympic athletes are able to mimic home at their own training facility in France
- Five best fits for Alex Bregman: Will Astros homegrown star leave as free agent?
- Barbie launches 'Dream Besties,' dolls that have goals like owning a tech company
- Officer fatally shoots armed man on Indiana college campus after suspect doesn’t respond to commands
- Megan Thee Stallion set to appear at Kamala Harris Atlanta campaign rally
- Judge sets April trial date for Sarah Palin’s libel claim against The New York Times
- Christina Applegate opens up about the 'only plastic surgery I’ve ever had'
Ranking
- Is Veterans Day a federal holiday? Here's what to know for November 11
- The Bachelor's Hailey Merkt Dead at 31 After Cancer Battle
- Civil Rights Movement Freedom Riders urge younger activists to get out the vote
- Judge tells UCLA it must protect Jewish students' equal access on campus
- Cold case arrest: Florida man being held in decades-old Massachusetts double murder
- NYC’s latest crackdown on illegal weed shops is finally shutting them down
- Olympic gymnastics live updates: Simone Biles, USA win gold medal in team final
- Body of missing 6-year-old nonverbal, autistic boy surfaces in Maryland pond
Recommendation
-
UConn, Kansas State among five women's college basketball games to watch this weekend
-
Harris gives Democrats a jolt in a critical part of swing-state Wisconsin
-
Snoop Dogg's winning NBC Olympics commentary is pure gold
-
Here's where the economy stands as the Fed makes its interest rate decision this week
-
Prosecutor failed to show that Musk’s $1M-a-day sweepstakes was an illegal lottery, judge says
-
Kevin Costner’s ‘Horizon: An American Saga-Chapter 2’ gets Venice Film Festival premiere
-
Jax Taylor Enters Treatment for Mental Health Struggles After Brittany Cartwright Breakup
-
With the funeral behind them, family of the firefighter killed at the Trump rally begins grieving