James Bargent

Dec 4, 2024 | insightcrime.org | James Bargent

In the early hours of the morning of January 7, 2024, a police and military task force stormed La Regional, one of two major prisons in Guayaquil. They had come for Ecuador’s most infamous criminal: José Adolfo Macías Villamar, better known as “Fito,” the leader of the Choneros, the country’s most powerful prison gang. The authorities were planning to transfer him to a more secure facility. But when they reached his cell, it was empty.

Dec 4, 2024 | insightcrime.org | James Bargent

The moment a person enters Ecuador’s prison system, they become a resource to be exploited by organized crime and corrupt officials in a criminal economy of staggering dimensions. Whether they are a hardened gangster, a petty criminal, or a civilian facing their first charges, this machine swallows them.

Dec 4, 2024 | insightcrime.org | James Bargent

Over the last five years, Ecuador has been engulfed in violence and a criminal chaos unprecedented in its modern history. The roots of this security crisis can be traced directly to the country’s prison system and the criminal networks that have grown inside of it. The evolution of these networks can be explained by the interaction between failed government reforms, institutional weaknesses, national and international criminal dynamics, and the actions of key criminal actors.

Dec 4, 2024 | insightcrime.org | James Bargent

Organized crime in Ecuador today operates on several levels. At the upper echelons are the drug traffickers who control Ecuador’s transnational cocaine trafficking business, and corrupt elites in politics, business, and within state institutions. At the bottom rung are gangs of disaffected youths and common criminals, who operate both on the country’s streets and in its prisons.

Dec 3, 2024 | insightcrime.org | James Bargent

El crimen organizado en Ecuador opera hoy en varios niveles. En los escalones superiores se encuentran aquellos que controlan el tráfico transnacional de cocaína en Ecuador y las élites corruptas de la política, el sector empresarial y las instituciones estatales. En el escalón más bajo se encuentran las bandas integradas por jóvenes descontentos y criminales comunes, que operan tanto en las calles como en las prisiones.