Ecuador: highest increase in violent deaths in Latin America

The year 2022 will go down in history as the year Ecuador hit its worst record of criminal violence.

According to official figures, the Andean country is the Latin American country with the highest increase in this type of violence.

As in Ecuador, nine other countries have seen increases in data on criminal violence.

In Ecuador, 2022 ended with 4,603 violent deaths, equivalent to 25 cases per 100,000 population.

In 2021, the violent death rate was 13.7 per 100,000 population. The percentage increase was 82.5%, according to Primicias, which has analyzed the record of violent deaths in Latin America.

In 2023, the situation in Ecuador has not improved because in the first 10 days of January there were 16 murders per day.

According to 2022 figures, Jamaica is the most violent country in Latin America with a rate of 50.6 deaths per 100,000 people, followed by Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras and Venezuela.

In contrast to Ecuador, where violent deaths have risen sharply, El Salvador has seen a 56% decrease. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s policy to curb violence has been questioned over human rights violations.

In Mexico, violent deaths have also fallen by 6%.

In Ecuador, the rise in criminal violence, reflected in violent deaths, is organized crime’s response to the actions of security forces trying to stem the encroachment of drug trafficking in the country, according to the government’s version.

According to the National Police report obtained by Primicias, police authorities seized around 201.4 tonnes of drugs in 2022. That amount, while not exceeding the 2021 seizures, is the second-highest in the country’s history.

Ecuador has become a key country for the shipment of drugs, particularly cocaine, to Europe and the United States. The country’s location is crucial, as it sits between the two main drug producers in the world: Colombia and Peru.

Colombia is one of the most important coca producers in the world. 66% of Latin America’s illicit coca crops are grown in Colombia, where 154,475 hectares are planted with illicit crops.

Peru, located on Ecuador’s southern border, is the second largest producer in the region with 23% of the acreage, equivalent to 54,655 hectares.

According to official figures from the Ecuadorian government, an average hectare of coca contains 10,000-12,000 plants and means at least 4.2 harvests per year.

On one hectare of these fields, 5.8 tonnes of coca leaves are grown annually, yielding 6.7 kg of cocaine hydrochloride per year.

In order to define strategies to counter threats at the Colombian-Ecuadorian border, the highest military representatives of the armed forces of both countries held a bilateral working meeting at the end of December and signed a declaration of commitment for the tactical and operational implementation of the border protection plan.

The aim is to promote measures to neutralize cross-border criminal groups operating in the border area.