The wife of a Guayaquil businessman received a photo of her husband’s severed left hand in March and threatened to continue the mutilation if she didn’t pay a $100,000 ransom.
In Ecuador, where drug-related violence is on the rise, kidnappings and confiscations are sowing a new terror that is affecting even the middle and upper classes.
In December, it was the photo of the mutilated left hand of a Chilean Navy soldier. In April, the X-ray of a fingerless hand caused a stir on social media: that of a US-based Ecuadorian who was tortured by his captors while on vacation in Guayaquil.
For decades, Ecuador was considered a peaceful island between Colombia and Peru, the two largest cocaine producers in the world. But the violence eventually swept across borders and devastated the country of 18 million people.
Between January and May, cases of kidnapping tripled: 189 compared to 60 for the same period in 2022. The numbers are all the more worrying because they would only reflect part of the reality. Victims kept quiet about kidnappings out of fear.
The victims are not necessarily very wealthy, the kidnappers prefer quick kidnappings with a ransom of $5000.
Experts agree that this crime is not the work of the worst mafia gangs like Los Lobos and Tiguerones linked to Mexican cartels.
“Why would a powerful gang allied to a drug cartel take the risk of kidnapping when they can organize the trafficking of two tons of cocaine much more profitably,” explains Central University expert Luis Cordova.
According to him, most kidnappings and extortions are carried out by common criminals, petty criminals who are swept up in the spiral of violence.
An anti-kidnapping unit of the police (Unase) has freed more than 70 hostages since the beginning of the year, according to the unit’s regional head Oscar Salguero, already around 60 more than in 2022.
Photo: AFP
“Growing Fear”
The port of Guayaquil and its 3 million people have become the epicenter of violence in Ecuador, with car bombings, dismembered bodies hanging from bridges or massacres of prisoners. And now the repeated kidnappings.
In this epicenter of cocaine shipments to the US and Europe, 1,000 homicides were recorded in 2023.
There is “a growing fear in the country, fueled by a campaign of terror and attacks,” while the government is unable to contain growing insecurity, Cordova told AFP.
However, the state is trying to respond by declaring states of emergency in the hardest-hit provinces and cities and sending the military into the streets to curb crime.
Although violence in Ecuador has not yet reached the levels of the worst periods of drug trafficking in Mexico or Colombia in 1980-90, “we are on a similar path,” security expert Carla Alvarez estimates Kidnapping, extortion or assassination has increased fivefold in the country.
Drug-related crime has caused the homicide rate to nearly double between 2021 and 2022, from 14 to 25 per 100,000 people.
At the same time, blackmail against business leaders is increasing. Around 2,700 such ads were registered this year.
Miguel, 40, who asked to remain anonymous, was threatened with kidnapping for a month because he refused to pay $20,000 for his protection. According to the investigation, this construction company boss received photos showing him under surveillance and warning messages.
In this context of terror, the snap general elections on August 20, following the dissolution of Parliament by non-candidate President Guillermo Lasso, could favor candidates for a “strong solution” against organized crime, Cordoba said.