Ecuador

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Ecuador arrests six Colombians as suspects in slaying of anti-corruption presidential candidate

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — The six men arrested as suspects in the assassination of an anti-corruption Ecuadorian presidential candidate are Colombian nationals, a police report said Thursday as authorities investigated the motive for a crime that shocked a nation already reeling from a surge in drug-related violence.

https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-villavicencio-presidential-candidate-killed-ee9c726b82c09e16e5dacde2d6f005ff?

Why this matters: President Guillermo Lasso confirmed the assassination and suggested organized crime was behind the slaying, less than two weeks before the Aug. 20 presidential election.   Villavicencio was an independent journalist who investigated corruption in previous governments, later entering politics as an anti-graft campaigner and filing many judicial complaints against high-ranking members of the Correa government, including against the ex-president himself.   Prior to the shooting, Villavicencio said he had received multiple death threats, including from affiliates of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, one of a slew of international organized crime groups that operate in Ecuador. He also said his campaign represented a threat to such groups.

Related coverage ➤ Ecuador suspends rights of assembly in some areas, deploys soldiers to prisons amid violence wave Mayor of Ecuador port city slain in shooting that kills 1 other, wounds 4 Ecuador’s president declines to run in snap elections after he disbands National Assembly

 

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Ecuador arrests six Colombians as suspects in slaying of anti-corruption presidential candidate

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — The six men arrested as suspects in the assassination of an anti-corruption Ecuadorian presidential candidate are Colombian nationals, a police report said Thursday as authorities investigated the motive for a crime that shocked a nation already reeling from a surge in drug-related violence.

https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-villavicencio-presidential-candidate-killed-ee9c726b82c09e16e5dacde2d6f005ff?

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Ecuador was calm and peaceful. Now hitmen, kidnappers and robbers walk the streets

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — Belen Diaz was walking home from college one evening when a motorcycle carrying two men made a menacing U-turn.

https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-crime-cocaine-fernando-villavicencio-4f96684926c2600e2483373555a7cf42?

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Political leader in Ecuador is killed less than a week after presidential candidate’s assassination

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — The unprecedented violence shaking Ecuador claimed the life of another political leader Monday, bringing the number of politics-related slayings within the last four weeks to three, including that of a presidential candidate.

https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-crime-political-killing-election-villavicencio-14a5fd781e52d31855f3fc4e9711ff84?

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Leftist leads Ecuador presidential poll count amid spike in violence

With nearly 80% of the votes counted, electoral officials say she has 33%, while her closest rival Daniel Noboa, a businessman, is on 24%.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-66564320?

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Security in Ecuador has come undone as drug cartels exploit the banana industry to ship cocaine

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — Men walk through a lush plantation between Ecuador ’s balmy Pacific coast and its majestic Andes, lopping hundreds of bunches of green bananas from groaning plants twice their height.

https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-bananas-cocaine-europe-drug-trafficking-6d6529e2b1d8f3cbd16aea74ade0b93d?

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Ecuador’s youngest elected president faces a practically impossible task

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador ‘s youngest elected president on Monday faced the practically impossible task of reducing a terrifying, drug-driven crime wave within a greatly shortened 1 1/2 years in office.

https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-presidential-election-cartels-noboa-luisa-bananas-549b7ca192e4e995cdfab96a39939381?

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Armed men storm an Ecuador TV studio during a live broadcast as attacks in the country escalate

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — Masked men broke onto the set of a public television channel in Ecuador waving guns and explosives during a live broadcast Tuesday, and the president issued a decree declaring that the violence-plagued country had entered an “internal armed conflict.”

https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-violence-attacks-emergency-gangs-prison-12f01b66f3fd523fcdca04e729aa27af?

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Ecuadorian police broke into Mexico’s embassy, sparking outrage. Why is this such a big deal?

Diplomatic relations between Mexico and Ecuador dramatically imploded after Ecuadorian police burst into Mexico’s embassy in Quito and arrested Jorge Glas, Ecuador’s former vice president, late Friday. But in a region that’s no stranger to political explosions, what has provoked such fierce outrage? Read more.

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Around 17 million people were left in the dark on Wednesday after Ecuador was hit with an hourslong nationwide blackout. The outage affected hospitals, homes and a major subway system. Authorities said it was caused by maintenance and transmission issues in the country's electrical system. As of Wednesday night, energy had been restored in 95% of the country, the government said. Ecuador has been struggling with an energy crisis for years. In April, the country's president declared an energy emergency and ordered widespread power cuts amid a drought that is straining its electric grid.

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At least 15 inmates killed in a fight in Ecuador’s largest prison

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — A fight among inmates in Ecuador’s largest and most dangerous prison left 15 dead and 14 wounded, authorities said Tuesday, in the bloodiest prison episode faced by President Daniel Noboa’s government.

https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-prison-violence-litoral-penitentiary-guayaquil-fbf39d518382773dc319654aa6db2407?

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Ecuadorian voters, many of them crime victims, head to the polls for presidential election

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — People on the streets of Ecuador can rattle off the places they have encountered criminals: On the bus, at the park, on the sidewalk, in a cab, by the mall, next to a restaurant.

https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-election-noboa-gonzalez-violence-crime-cocaine-3ccf5c11856ad1d71fd3c0e8f0a6be4e?

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What to know about Ecuador's presidential runoff election

In a polarized political landscape, Ecuadorian voters will choose Sunday between an incumbent young millionaire and a leftist lawyer to lead the South American country for the next four years. Read More.

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Daniel Noboa is reelected Ecuador’s president by voters weary of crime Ecuadorian voters weary of crime reelected President Daniel Noboa, a conservative young millionaire with a divisive no-holds-barred crime fighting record, by a wide margin Sunday, but his opponent vowed to seek a recount over what she described as “grotesque” electoral fraud. Read more.

Why this matters: Noboa, heir to a fortune built on the banana trade, is expected to continue applying some of his no-holds-barred crime fighting strategies that part of the electorate finds appealing but which have tested the limits of laws and norms of governing. González’s defeat marks the third consecutive time that the party of Rafael Correa, the country’s most influential president this century, failed to return to the presidency.   Voters were primarily worried about the violence that transformed the country, starting in 2021 — a spike in crime tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Fugitive leader of violent Ecuadorian drug gang is indicted in New York City   Once a migratory highway, the Darien Gap has been left empty under Trump crackdown

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Seed guardians of the Amazon: A family’s solitary fight to save endangered plants

ALTO ILA, Ecuador (AP) — On a recent journey into the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle, Ramón Pucha realized he was being trailed. Fresh puma tracks now lined the path alongside his own footprints. Unfazed, he continued his trek, focused entirely on the precious cargo he carried — seeds from some of the world’s most endangered plant species.

https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-amazon-indigenous-seeds-64cf35f6ec625c73453cde39258fd585?

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Ecuador Antidrug Operation

Ecuador’s government deployed 75,000 soldiers and police officers to four provinces Sunday. The US-backed crackdown involves nighttime curfews and will also include helicopters and armored cars. It is scheduled to last two weeks.  It was not immediately clear whether US soldiers would participate in the operation. Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa is a staunch ally of US President Donald Trump, and came to office in 2023 on a mission to crack down on cartel-fueled violence. Noboa is part of the US’ 17-country antidrug alliance announced this month—a group composed primarily of Latin American countries. Last week, the FBI said it would open an office in Ecuador, working with local police to crack down on crime and corruption. Roughly 70% of cocaine from Colombia and Peru, two of the world’s largest cocaine exporters, travels through Ecuador. Despite Noboa’s efforts, the country’s murder rate rose by over 30% between 2024 and 2025. Explore trend here (w/graph).