There is no country in the world that processes as many tons of cocaine per capita as Ecuador. The South American country, which sits between the two largest coca leaf producers in South America and the world, Colombia and Peru, has evolved over the past 15 years into a logistical platform for major transnational crime organizations. Among them, the Sinaloa Cartel stands out, which has almost half a century of experience introducing drugs to the world’s largest consumer market, the United States.
The famous American drug trade these days appears to be linked to the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. Villavicencio, who was attacked with bullets on Wednesday, had in recent days denounced threats and intimidation against him and his team by the Los Choneros criminal gang, which has been an alleged ally of Sinaloa residents for years. Villavicencio accused the alleged leader of the gang, aka Fito, of sending him threatening messages. Apparently, Fito didn’t like that the candidate spoke to the press about him as an example of crime and corruption in the country.
Villavicencio died on the same Wednesday as a result of the lead. Given this, his attack seemed to point directly to Los Choneros, a group of criminals born on the north coast of Ecuador before the turn of the century. Hours later, however, a group of hooded men dressed in black released a video claiming responsibility for the attack. In the video, one of them said they were part of the Los Lobos crime group, an offshoot of Los Choneros, and accused Villavicencio of breaking an agreement.
Things got even more complicated this Thursday when another group of men, their faces uncovered and dressed in white, released a video claiming to be genuine members of “GDO”. [grupo de la delincuencia organizada] Los Lobos” and denies any involvement in the assassination of the candidate. Whether or not Los Lobos is authorship has allowed for extensive speculation about the group’s international ties, particularly their alleged links with rising Mexican crime force the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), alleged rivals of Sinaloa.
Members of the Los Lobos criminal group, in a video recording.
Sinaloa or Jalisco, that is the question. Beyond names and brands, their presence in the equation requires an understanding of their role in local crime dynamics. How do suspected transnational criminal alliances affect the functioning of local crime? In an interview with an Ecuadorian media company a month and a half ago, the academic Fernando Carrión spoke of a hold logic. Thus, Mexican criminal groups used gangs like Los Choneros and Los Lobos to transport cocaine, import materials for its production, and so on.
These are not part-time jobs. Carrión explained that Ecuador distributes between 700 and 800 tons of cocaine every year. Most of it goes north, towards the United States, another part goes to Brazil, the world’s second largest consumer of cocaine and derivatives, and another part stays in place, feeding increasingly important local markets, a phenomenon that common in the rest of Latin America. Governments also donate a portion. According to the local authorities, in 2021 alone it was 210 tons.
Daniel Pontón, dean of the School of Security and Defense of the Institute of Higher National Studies of Ecuador, explains that the presence of Mexican organizations in the country dates back to the early 2000s, when they appeared in prisons, which also mentions the CJNG,” he adds. The expert imagines a pattern of “contacts” for the Mexican influence, far removed from the usual business logic. “Organized crime doesn’t work like a private company, it’s contacts and franchises, letterhead that people here use because of the contacts they’ve made and that ensure security in the management of certain drug trafficking routes,” he points out.
modus operandi
Mexican scholar Cecilia Farfán-Méndez posits that Mexican criminal groups such as the Sinaloa Cartel manage international drug trafficking networks, but is somewhat reluctant to identify their forms and dynamics. “There’s always a debate about which criminal group is the most powerful and how it’s expanding internationally,” he explains. “But the reality is that it’s very difficult to get reliable information and concrete data on the spread of these groups,” he adds.
Forensic experts work in the area where Fernando Villavicencio was murdered in Quito. Jose Jacome (EFE)
Pontoon formulates a similar thesis. “Ecuador’s problem of violence is endogenous, as is ours. Here we have experienced a very special process of increasing the complexity of violence. Sure, it’s largely funded by international organized crime. But I don’t know to what extent the Mexican cartels are in control of what’s happening here,” he says. “The truth is that there is little information. A lot of journalistic research has been done, but neither the Academy nor the institutions have a clear view of what we have.”
“The main problem,” argues Farfán-Méndez, “is given the number of intermediaries involved in the various illicit economies, what makes one a member of an organization like the Sinaloa Cartel?” he argues. Farfán-Méndez, who directs the Center for Studies on US-Mexico Relations at the University of California, San Diego and has studied the Sinaloa cartel’s business model, points out that information about the size of the groups often comes from interested parties Parties, like the DEA. In July, the US Anti-Narcotics Agency estimated that the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels had around 45,000 members.
The form and interests of the international sections of Mexican criminal organizations illustrate the heart of the matter. To what extent are they responsible for the increase in murderous violence in Ecuador? And what about the prison violence that has claimed hundreds of lives across the country over the past four years? These are questions that lead to the attack against Villavicencio. Beyond the direct impact, criminal practices in the north of the continent could permeate practices in the south.
Farfán-Méndez refers here to Los Zetas, one of the most well-known criminal brands in the first decade of the century. “The Zetas were the press’s favorite group, talking about something challenging, big with the ability to shoot. And then there was talk in many places that Los Zetas would come. If you are a criminal, you have an incentive to say that you belong to a group of some repute. It can help you. In other words, it doesn’t mean there aren’t relationships, but there are incentives to use brands that can help you generate income or whatever it is you’re looking for.”
Parts of the police guard the crime scene in Ecuador. Dolores Ochoa (AP)
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