The current security crisis in Ecuador reflects the advance of drug trafficking in Latin America and its penetration into that country's political system. Professor Wagner de Melo Romão, from the Department of Political Science at the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH), describes, in the Analisa program, how Ecuador arrived at the current situation and what the implications of this are for the rest of Latin America, including the Brazil. Also participating in the program is Ecuadorian Richard Guilhermo Vasconez García, a doctoral student at the Institute of Geosciences (IG), who witnessed the climate of fear and the state of exception installed in recent days in Ecuador, where he left on 10/1, one day later of drug traffickers having invaded a TV station during a live broadcast.
In the last seven years, the power of criminal factions has grown as Ecuador went from being just a drug trafficking route – supplying the North American and European markets – to becoming a control center for this trade, a position it belonged to before going to Colombia. Connected to international groups, the factions compete for power among themselves and with the government itself. In August 2023, the Los Lobos faction claimed responsibility for the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
The critical situation that has been penalizing the population for years gained even greater proportions after the escape from prison of José Macías Villamar (known as Fito), leader of the Los Choneros faction, which rivals the Los Lobos faction. The day after the escape, January 8, a series of simultaneous organized crime actions, involving kidnappings, attacks and homicides, caused chaos in prisons, streets, universities and hospitals.
Understand the recent events that occurred in Ecuador and the similarities and differences with organized crime in Brazil. Romão talks about the fragility of the Brazilian prison system, which has many similarities with the Ecuadorian one. According to the professor, recent events in Ecuador take us back to 2006, when there was an attack by the PCC – an acronym for the criminal faction Primeiro Comando da Capital. According to García, the lack of social actions by the last Ecuadorian neoliberal governments also contributed to the advance of drug traffickers, facilitating the recruitment, by factions, of the poor and young population.
INFORMATION
Production – Hebe Rios
Text and presentation - Adriana Vilar de Menezes
Images - Marcos Botelho Junior, Alvaro Godoi
Edition – Kleber Casablanca
Cover edit – Alex Calixto
