The country sits between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest cocaine producers, and faces a drug traffickingrelated crime wave that leaves a terror scenario in its wake.
Marcos PIN / AFP
An explosion in Guayaquil is being blamed by the government on organized crime Ecuador left five dead and 16 injured, 14 this Sunday. “Organized crime mercenaries who have long drugged the economy are now attacking with explosives. This is not a problem for the Ecuadorian police. It is a declaration of war on the state,” Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo said on his Twitter account. The incident, the causes of which have not yet been detailed by police, also caused destruction to eight buildings and two cars, according to the National Risk Management Service (SNGR). It was a “big explosion,” the police said on Twitter. Ecuador is in between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest producer of cocaine, and faces a drugrelated crime wave that leaves a scene of terror with decapitated bodies and hanging from bridges in the style of Mexican cartels. The clashes extend into the prisons, where there have been seven riots since February 2021 that have killed around 400 inmates. “Or we can team up to face it [o crime organizado], or the price will be even higher for society,” Carrillo warned in his message. Last year, Ecuador, home to 18 million people, had a homicide rate of 14 per 100,000 people, nearly double the 2020 rate.
*With AFP