In Ecuador’s efforts to contain gang violence

Guayaquil, Ecuador
Cnn
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The convoy moves quickly – half a dozen non -marked pickups and SUVs, the plates torn down, webles and go crazy through traffic. The vehicles cross into bus traces and Straddle Road divider, but the other drivers hardly react when they come by, deaf – it seems – to this kind of chaos.

The passengers of the convoy correspond and add tactical vests to their clothes and mask over their heads. Without the policia, which is decorated with their body armor, everyone would think that this was a crew of masked bandits, not the hidden law enforcement officers they are.

The vehicles scream in a quarter in Pascuales, a gang stronghold in Guayaquil, the largest city of Ecuador, and enables CNN to follow them.

The families barbecue outside and children inject in pools, which are set up in the strict roads, while the largely Catholic population celebrates the end of the carnival and prepares for the beginning of Lent.

Officers stack from the vehicles and hurry into several houses at the same time. The police tell us that they have four goals – suspects associated with drug trafficking that makes this city so dangerous.

When the attack ends, only one man is taken into custody. Relatives occur quickly and remove the man’s bracelets and earrings while the officers load him in the back of a pickup. His mother, who just arrived in time to see him taken, calls through tears: “Que Dios te Bendiga” (May God bless you).

Police officers tell us that the operation was a success and that together with the suspect they confiscated about 150 grams (5.3 ounces) cocaine and two small explosives.

But one of the hidden officers has something else to say. “We could use the help of the United States,” he tells us and does not want to give our name if it endangers its security. “We need resources: vehicles, armor, staff.”

The problem is certainly much larger than a bag of cocaine that weighs approximately as well as a peach or a baseball.

Ecuador between Colombia and Peru, top cocaine producer, has been involved in drug trafficking and violence that always follows. The efficient transport and export system was used by cartels to move and send their goods overseas – the cocaine stones that are hidden in boxes with bananas and other goods that then drive to the USA, Europe and the rest of the world.

Police dogs alarmed officials on more than six tons of cocaine, who were hidden in port of Guayaquil among bananas last July, reported officials. And in November the Spanish police said that they needed their biggest drugs of all time – 13 tons of cocaine among bananas, which were shipped by Guayaquil.

In addition to checking the ports and the targeted raids, the police make a violence exhibition – the cars and the search for drugs and weapons.

Under a stormy gray sky, ask the drivers to step the thick humidity while looking in vehicles, in the tribes and even in the depths of the engine to ensure that no illegal package is glued out of sight and tries to avoid discovery.

“We have set the most dangerous areas of the city for these anti-crime operations,” says the police from the police, Orlando Posligua, who is at a bust terminal in Guayaquil.

But there is only limited success. The neighborhood, in which the lightning robbery, its city and maybe even the whole country get through crime, tell us the residents.

The raid officers point to a house in which, as they were shot down two months earlier, a few. In the front door there is a bullet hole near a faded sticker, in which “Somos Católicos” and pictures of the Virgin Mary ran. From the outside we can still see how a pool of dried blood is unclean on the floor. When asked why the couple were targeted, we are told that they have not paid their “Vacuna” – a protection fee that the gangs of families and companies demand.

The mixture of gangs, drugs and public security drives the increasing migration of Ecuador, and all of this offers President Daniel Noboa the opportunity to ask for help from the USA and President Donald Trump.

Noboa-der Next month in a close race for re-election–Will will be foreign military help and many believe that this means US troops.

The countries already have a certain level of military cooperation. The US State Department has spent 81 million US dollars for drugs and cartels in Ecuador in combating drugs and cartels since 2018, and there is a status of armed forces that enable us to send US military and civilian personnel to Ecuador, but to stay under US control if necessary.

The Noboa proposal has to go through the Ecuadorian congress, but it already has a certain support in Guayaquil, the most populous city in the country and now also one of the most dangerous.

“I think (foreign help) is necessary, the local police don’t really help us,” Kathy Flor told CNN. “We need more control.”

Jaqueline Villacres, who sells sweets, snacks and cigarettes from a tiny kiosk near the bus station, agrees: “It would be excellent to receive foreign support to help the Ecuadorians.”

The undercover officer pointed out that the United States stationed the troops on a base in Manta in the west of Ecuador on the Pacific coast before foreign bases were banned by the constitution. “I want us to have ourselves back at the base you once occupied,” he says.

But Stalin Escobar says that he is suspicious of the costs that Ecuador could ultimately pay. “I don’t think it would come here for free … The government has to invest this money to equip our police and our military instead of paying foreigners.”

If you are looking for aids, Noboa could be a natural thing.

He already has connections to the US President and accepts an invitation for him and his wife Lavinia Valbonesi to be in the Capitol Rotunde for Trump’s second inauguration.

The 37-year-old also mirrored some of Trump’s actions and words.

On the day of Trump’s inauguration, the X -Consconto of the Ecuadorian President, as he supported the US intention to categorize, categorized drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, which he had already done.

And Noboa also the son of a wealthy magnate, although in his Banana case it is not a property-on February 3, the tariffs for imports from Mexico were raised when Trump did the same before negotiations in the last minute delayed the change for one month.

Noboa would not want to hurt business with the United States, which is the largest trading partner of Ecuador and a leading investor. About one of five of the bananas imported into the USA comes from Ecuador, which also delivers shrimp, tuna, cocoa and cut flowers.

He was also able to comply with Trump’s plans to contain illegal immigration to the United States. The data show that Ecuador accepts more deportation flights since Trump has become president, but there have also been more Ecuadorians who have been going north since security at home got worse.

While the number of people from Mexico and the Central American countries El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras gave a jump from Ecuador in 2023 and 2024.

In 2022, CBP 24,936 Ecuadorians found without documents, but in 2024 this number pointed to 124,023, as state statistics show.

Nevertheless, Trump’s Noboas advertising cannot lead too little. He faces the draining presidential election in April when the electorate between him and his left rival Luisa González will choose. She also promises to tackle the security problems with crime and drugs, but says, while Noboa is afraid, she stands for Hope.