Mexican Cartels, Cocaine & Crime Rule in Ecuador

[Music] foreign [Music] new Rohan Ecuador is in the grips of an unprecedented drug war violence and murder are between rival gangs has become so out of control that the government has declared multiple states of emergency and the military is now enforcing a 9 pm curfew in the worst hit cities Valencia [Music] is amigo right now there's this big operation going on trying to clean out the city this particular one is controlled by Los tigorones which means the Tigers there's 23 soldiers in this block right here and what they found when they've asked people to go inside are these little baggies of cocaine everywhere decapitated bodies car bombs and shootouts have become the new normal in Ecuador which was one of the safest places in Latin America in the last two years homicide rates have soared 245 percent fueled by increasing violence and unprecedented number of ecuadorians are showing up on America's Southern border is authorities say the two decapitated men found on this bridge may have been killed for being in four minutes it's a gruesome tactic often used by cartels in Mexico to intimidate their Rivals it's increasingly Happening Here in Ecuador a sign that Mexican cartels are moving in and teaming up with local gangs but the open Warfare between rival drug cartels exploded after this man was assassinated in 2020. Jorge Luis sombrano otherwise known as raskinha was a powerful Ecuadorian gang boss who worked closely with the Sinaloa cartel he kept a lid on the local gangs but in 2020 he was gunned down in a cafe in a scene captured on this CCTV footage not clear who killed him but after he died Mexico seen a lower cartel in its rival Jalisco New Generation cartel effectively took control of Ecuador's drug trade using local gangs to move cocaine invite to dominate drug roots [Music] the man responsible for stopping these gangs is General Alexander laboyer he front lines of his battle Ecuador's northern border with Colombia where much of the world's cocaine is produced Americana [Music] Ecuador according to un projections Colombia was producing a record amount of cocaine by 2021 an estimated 1400 metric tons as much as 45 of it passes through Ecuador before being shipped to North America and Europe [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] has called The War on Drugs a failure and scaled back the eradication of Coca plantations that means more drugs are flowing into Ecuador making general labor Year's job a lot harder so on that side it's Colombia products once the drugs enter Ecuador much of it ends up here at the country's Port hidden between legal products like fertilizer and seafood I'm in the biggest Port of Ecuador it's in Guayaquil and this is where so many of the drugs that reach Europe they leave from the sport good boy [Music] products what is this is foreign [Music] character oh my God last year Acura seized a record 184 tons of cocaine worth at least seven billion dollars in the US but that's a drop in the ocean authorities acknowledge they can only do a detailed inspection on about five percent of these containers for years this man has been trafficking cocaine through Ecuador for a group affiliated with the Sinaloa cartel he agreed to talk to us only if we concealed its identity foreign [Music] Grande [Music] [Music] military with the situation spiraling out of control the government has locked up thousands of gang members we were given exclusive access to some of these high security prisons the rock it is the Maximum Security Prison of Ecuador it's where the leaders of some of the most powerful and dangerous criminal groups here you have to keep on the middle they say [Music] yeah I'm senior I can't even thinking gang members are now running their drug operations from behind Prison Walls and also continuing their war against each other more than 400 incarcerated people have died in gang-related massacres since 2021 including in this wing of the literal it's Ecuador's largest prison and located next to larocca is momento oh control these two men survived riots in 2021 that left 187 prisoners dead footage of the massacre spread on social media they agreed to appear on camera but prison officials later requested we blur their faces because of security concerns they say they're not affiliated with Ecuadorian gangs but they are convicted of drug-related charges receiving foreign soldiers had to keep patrolling and watching their backs Ecuador just five days before our visit gang members fired on the General's troops while patrolling the neighborhood killing one of his soldiers yes foreign

Channel: VICE News

Views: 1,549,149

Keywords: VICE News, VICE News Tonight, VICE on HBO, news, vice video, VICE on SHOWTIME, vice news 2023, war on drugs, drug trafficking, south america, drug cartel, latin america, mexican cartel tourist kidnapping, mexican cartel vs military, ecuador cartel, ecuador cartel violence, ecuador cartel news, ecuador mexico cartel, ecuador carteles, ecuador cartel leader, ecuador news today english, ecuador news 2023, ecuador news crime, ecuador news violence

Id: GwT9IcE6E0o

Length: 11min 56sec (716 seconds)

Published: Sat May 27 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/biencriado]

Cha madre. Esa parte en la que el entrevistado dice que los carteles estan aqui desde 2019 justo esta cortada la entrevista. Estaria bueno que pusieran la entrevista completa en linea para ver si es que lo que dice sobre que antes de eso "estaban en silencio" se refiere a si es que hacian por ejemplo, solo trabajo de reconocimiento o si es que habia trafico en menor volumen, o que mismo?? porque cuando le pregunta si es que no estaban desde antes, esa respuesta no aclara nada.

Si se pudiera saber desde un punto mas exacto, cuando llegaron los carteles a Ecuador, se podria saber mas especificamente que cambio en las politicas publicas hizo que lleguen.

Por ejemplo, si el man dijera que "antes de eso" se refiere a 2016, sabriamos que entraron a raiz del terremoto y la el repunte en pobreza que eso generó, o si dijera por ejemplo 2018, eso podria ligarse a la eliminacion de la SETED por parte de Moreno. (estos son supuestos obviamente, en realidad habria mas factores, pero aplico un Pareto criollo para ejemplificar causales)

Me encantaría ver la entrevista completa