Since 2023, Ecuador has been overwhelmed by a remarkable degree of violence. Mayors and presidential candidates have been assassinated. TV stations have been stormed. Kidnappings have been rampant. Prison outbreaks have occurred with frequency. How and why has such lawlessness overrun a country once deemed one of the success stories of South America?
This reporting project examines the ways in which international drug cartels and globalized organized crime groups have moved in on Ecuador, turning its coastline into one of the world's foremost exporters of cocaine. With the profits has come the violence—and the question of how Ecuador might recover from such a swift descent into chaos.
