Violence grows in Ecuador as illegal weapons enter from Peru and Colombia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In Ecuador, the cross-border flow of industrially-sourced weapons increases crime and exacerbates the current prison crisis. So far, in 2021, more than 2,000 homicides have been recorded, with less than a month to go before the end of the year. This figure surpassed the 1,372 deaths recorded in 2020 and represents almost double the 1,187 in 2019.

As of October 2021, in Ecuador, there was a rate of 11 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, 3 points higher than that recorded in 2020 and close to the regional average of 18 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, according to Insight Crime’s research in the Americas.

In large quantities, these crimes are being perpetrated by increasingly sophisticated weapons entering Ecuador, which has strategic territory for international drug markets. According to the police, the dead include drug traffickers killed in the settling of scores and homicides associated with robberies and assaults.

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A report by legislators on the Commission for Sovereignty, Integration and Integral Security, prepared in October and accessed by the newspaper El Universo, revealed an atypical increase in violence. This was before the massacre that took the lives of 65 inmates at the Litoral Penitentiary in November.

According to new data from the Ministry of Government, the bloodbaths in that Ecuadorian prison, along with others perpetrated this year, have left around 335 dead.

The weapons, which can even reach a victim from more than a kilometer away and whose technology is state-of-the-art, enter Ecuador through the northern border, which it shares with Colombia, and the southern border, which it shares with Peru.

The legislative commission report states that while handmade firearms are decreasing, high-tech weapons entering from Peru are increasing. An investigation by the newspaper El Universo indicates that illegal weapons are destined for drug trafficking and related crimes.

By the middle of this year, the military had destroyed 5,514 weapons, many of which had been seized in operations against common criminals. On November 17, 4,254 more were melted down, meaning that the destruction of confiscated weapons almost doubled. Colonel Mario Pazmiño, former head of intelligence of the Armed Forces, spoke to El Universo and explained that the situation responds to an accumulation of crimes associated with the illicit possession of arms and military weapons that can be explained by the inaction of previous governments.

Three weeks ago, the police found around 20 weapons in a mine. The weapons included rifles, machine guns, shotguns, and ammunition. They also found 6,000 sticks of dynamite, all valued at US$100,000 and coming from Peru.

The arms trade also originates from the northern border with Colombia. The territorial boundary extends for approximately 578 kilometers. According to military authorities’ estimates, more than 100 unauthorized border crossings link small towns in Esmeraldas, Carchi, and Sucumbíos in Ecuador with Nariño and Putumayo in Colombia.

In another seizure, on August 14 of this year in Guayaquil, the Ecuadorian National Police found 9.5 tons of cocaine and ten rifles whose destructive shells could pass through an armored truck, according to government Minister Alexandra Vela.

In October of this year, 5 kilometers from the Ecuadorian prison where the bloodiest massacre in the prison system took place, the National Police raided a house that served as a storage center for a criminal gang. In a private urban house the police found drones, explosives, and ammunition. The authorities suspect that the weapons will enter the prison with the help of the drones.

As part of the police operations, three people suspected of bringing illegal items into Guayaquil prisons were arrested in another house. Among those detained is an official of the Servicio de Atención Integral, the institution in charge of the prisons.

The police indicated a confidential complaint some months ago against the official. Police investigations determined how he accumulated firearms to bring them into the prisons.