Crisis in Cristo del Consuelo: bloody bombing reveals the growing power of narcos in Ecuador
Crisis in Cristo del Consuelo: bloody bombing reveals the growing power of narcos in Ecuador
As local criminal groups in Ecuador fight to control smuggling routes, the port city of Guayaquil is increasingly becomming a battlefield
Avast, me hearties!
We hope the briny ocean breeze has filled your sails this week, whatever course you’re navigating. Aboard the Good Ship Capybara, Josh and Dani are heaving the word crank, Amy’s discovering 52 ways of falling off a trapeze, and Paulo’s been looking at what’s going on in Ecuador for this week’s dispatch.
Don’t forget, Pirate Wire Services relies on readers to stay afloat as we navigate the stormy seas of journalism.
Everyone on Calle 8 thought they were experiencing an earthquake. At 3 a.m. on Sunday, August 14, shaking buildings and screams filled the early morning air—and smoke, dust, and bloodstains on broken pieces of cement filled the street. In the Cristo del Consuelo neighborhood, in the southwest of Guayaquil, the pre-dawn hours of the waning night brought with them chaos, and tragedy.
Seconds before, some strangers on a motorcycle had passed Roxana's house (34 years old) and thrown a sack at her door. The bag contained a powerful pipe bomb which, when detonated, instantly killed her. Two others died minutes later at a hospital. The explosive also left 17 injured, destroyed three houses, two vehicles, and public lighting poles and cables.
Hours later, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso declared a State of Emergency throughout the city of Guayaquil, publicly calling the bombing a terrorist attack. It’s the 58th such “terrorist attack” in Guayaquil so far in 2022, according to the government, although the first to leave fatalities.
Five days later, the Ecuadorian police arrested the suspects in the bombing. Possible motives, according to police, include fights between rival gangs over extortion, or retaliation against a business owner perceived by one gang as supporting another. Beyond the theories of police, everything points to the fact that this is yet another episode of the growing violence carried out by criminal groups linked to drug trafficking.
A country surrounded by cocaine producers
Why is drug violence on the rise in Ecuador? “Ecuador is located between the two largest cocaine producers in the world: Colombia and Peru,” said Fernando Carrión, a professor who studies security issues, “In the last two years, Peru doubled its cocaine production and Colombia’s rose by 25%.”
Ecuador has become an indispensable route for narco-traffickers who want to move their cocaine north to Central and North America, and with the arrival of the drug trade, violence quickly followed.
This dynamic, along with low state institutionality and the lack of a coherent anti-narcotics policy, "allow these criminal groups to infiltrate and evade state institutions" to an alarming degree, said Carrión, “at political, judicial and economic levels.”
Currently, around twenty organized criminal gangs operate in Ecuador, all of them linked to drug trafficking. As revealed in an investigation by the BBC, this activity takes place mainly in collaboration with the Mexican cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, who entrust Ecuadorian narco groups to secure and transport cocaine the Mexican cartels have purchased in neighboring countries to the port of Guayaquil, where Mexican cartels organize further transportation north.
For these activities, the Mexican cartels used to pay for their services in dollars. However, Carrión warns that, in the last three years, this mechanism has changed: “They began to pay in drugs and this means that these local groups have to organize and monetize that in the local market. And the result is a strengthening and entrenchment [in local markets] of these criminal structures”
This fact, added to the fact that Guayaquil is the port “through which 65% of smuggled drugs leave the country”, means control over the port city is crucial for narco groups competing to control the smuggling market. It also means Guayaquil is quickly becoming one of the most violent places in Ecuador as well as the largest domestic market for cocaine in the country.
In addition, explained Carrión, the massive amount of legitimate economic activity in Guayaquil, as the primary shipping port in the country, makes it an ideal place to launder illicit profits. “This triple jeopardy makes Guayaquil an incredibly dangerous place”.
This is the context for the latest bombing. But why is the violence getting worse? And how is it that people who, apparently, are not linked to criminal gangs or drug trafficking are being killed in the crossfire?
The victims, the arrested, and the secret identities of those involved
Roxana Montaña had gone out onto the balcony of her house at the moment the bomb, which contained 30 pounds of explosives, was dropped. Police reports indicate that bomb also included “nails, glass, metal fragments and other types of shrapnel," presumably to inflict maximum casualties.
Along with Roxana, the explosion also killed Jean Carlo Campusano, 26, who was returning home from a party. “The glass hit him in the chest and neck,” lamented his mother, Cecilia. “There wasn't even an ambulance or someone to help my son,”. Two other victims, Ana Lucía Narváez (42 years old) and Walter Álava (41 years old), were eating in a nearby restaurant
The final victim, Vicente Agustín Loor, 41, was the only casualty with ties to drug possession and trafficking, who was killed while leaving a nearby clandestine nightclub. Although it was early in the morning, Calle 8 in the Cristo del Consuelo neighborhood has a vibrant nightlife, and the attack occurred in a commercial area with a number of restaurants and informal bars.
One of the motives proposed by Ecuadorian authorities was that the target of the bombing was payback againt the owner of one of these establishments, a person who goes by the alias 'Cucaracha' and who was slightly injured by the attack.
Another possible motive presented by police was a war between gangs. They mention the recent growth of Los Tiguerones, a gang from the city of Esmeraldas, in reports on the incident. However, Carrión considers this hypothesis unsubstantiated. "For there to be a war,” he told PWS, “at least two groups are needed and that is not seen explicitly" in this case.
A third hypothesis is that merchants in the area had not been making extortion payments or, as they are known in Ecuador, 'vaccines'. “In certain neighborhoods where the police can no longer enter, security is guaranteed by these criminal organizations and for that they charge for the services they provide. If they are not paid, they send a bomb or some element to influence the decision to pay for security”, explained the academic.
Darío Arturo Ch, 34, alias 'Morado', was arrested by police and charged with participation in the attack. Police report that he was on parole, and faced seven ongoing criminal cases – one of them for murder – and that he was wearing an electronic shackle as part of his house arrest. In a raid, they found weapons, explosives, stolen motorcycles and alleged evidence of his participation in the attack.
Is there a solution?
For Carrión the only response by the government of Guillermo Lasso to the growing crisis has been aggressive “heavy hand” security approaches and periods of “states of emergency”, where civil rights are suspended to allow broader powers to police. Under Ecuadorian law, this situation allows the authorities to enter suspicious houses without a court order and install checkpoints on the highways, in order to cut off the supply routes of criminal organizations.
However, Carrión maintains that this strategy, which has already been taken twice this year, "is not showing results" and reflects poor intelligence work on the part of the security forces.
"We move away from brute force tactics, to intelligent ones,” he said. “That means building an institutional framework, which we currently lack, as well as a concrete strategy, which we do not have, and putting in economic resources, which we do not have either," he finally proposed.
In Argentina, a major public works corruption case against vice-president and former president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, is reaching its final stages. Known as the Vialidad case, prosecutors allege that Kirchner favoured the company of Lazaro Báez, a businessman with ties to her family, with public works contracts in return for kickbacks derived from overpricing the contracts. Fernández de Kirchner has long claimed the charges against her are politically motivated. Her lawyers attempted to have the prosecutor and judge removed from the case after photos emerged of them playing football at a property owned by ex-president and opposition leader, Mauricio Macri. The request was denied. Báez was found guilty of money laundering offenses related to the case in 2019.
Mexico has deployed the army to border cities including Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez to quell an outburst of cartel violence. Shootings and arson attacks claimed the lives of eleven people in Ciudad Juárez during a day of violence thought to have started when a fight between gangs in prison spread to the streets. Elsewhere, the Jalisco Cartel New Generation reportedly faced off against security forces and burned cars in the states of Jalisco and Baja California. On this note, we’re following journalist Estefanía Mitre, who has been diligently pointing out some fairly major errors in some fairly major media, and recommending local outlets to follow on both sides of the border instead:
The governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Mexico took the unusual step of issuing a joint statement calling for the strengthening of democracy in Peru. “We call on all institutions and political forces in that sister republic to strengthen political dialogue, as a tool for overcoming the current situation the country is in,” the statement read. Current president Pedro Castillo, a former rural schoolteacher, came to power in July 2021 and is already entangled in six judicial investigations. Some 60 ministers have paraded through his cabinet amid a flurry of corruption, questionable sackings, and domestic violence allegations. Critics said Castillo, who campaigned on an economically progressive but socially conservative platform, lacked experience in national government. But Peru’s political instability predates him: he is the fifth president since March 2018. The Andean country had three presidents in November 2019 alone after the ousting of Martín Vizcarra in an alleged “parliamentary coup” sparked massive protests.
What we’re writing:
Daniela and Josh wrote about Petro’s bid to build peace by negotiating with armed groups and rethinking the drug war for NACLA
Amy wrote about a women’s football team from an indigenous community who overcame discrimination, violence and long days working farmers’ fields for a pittance to reach the final of the Salta Cup for The Guardian
Daniela published captivating portraits from the crowd outside Colombian president Gustavo Petro’s inauguration on Latino Rebels
What we’re reading and watching:
This Al Jazeera long read on Canadian mining companies’ misdeeds, including in Andalgalá, Argentina
Michael Deibert’s brilliant long read untangling the crisis in Haiti, looking at who the country’s armed groups are, how they emerged, and what happens now
This report on persecution of Nicaraguans who oppose Daniel Ortega (the seven-minute segment, part of a series, is particularly valuable at a time when many journalists are being refused entry to the country)
Spanish words of the week:
odre (m) - wineskin. Or, por qué no? - rumskin. Arrr.
colgarse (v refl); colgada/o/e - this literally means “to be hung” - but in Argentina, a person who’s colgada/o is scatty, fails to reply to messages, doesn’t show up when they’re supposed to, etc. You can say it about yourself, too - “Perdón, me colgué”. Possibly because you’re in the bilges with your odre.
Right, it’s time for the Good Ship Capybara to dock for the weekend. Paying subscribers will be receiving a Ship’s Log very soon. Otherwise, we’ll see you next Friday.
Chau, piratas!
Atentado en Cristo del Consuelo: una bomba que dejó 5 muertos y reveló el problema narco en Ecuador
The port city of Guayaquil was the scene of an attack that still has no clear culprits. How serious is the infiltration of drug trafficking in this South American country?
Todos en la Calle 8 pensaron que era un terremoto. Eran alrededor de las 3 a.m. del domingo 14 de agosto y todo era destrucción en esa zona del barrio Cristo del Consuelo, en el suroeste de Guayaquil. Una humareda de polvo y pedazos de cemento inundaron la calle. También gritos y manchas de sangre.
Segundos antes, unos desconocidos en moto habían pasado por la casa de Roxana (34 años) y habían arrojado un saco de yute en su puerta. La bolsa contenía una poderosa bomba artesanal que, al detonar, la asesinó instantáneamente a ella y a otras dos personas. Otras dos murieron minutos después en un hospital. El explosivo también dejó 17 heridos, destruyó tres casas, dos vehículos, y los postes y cables del alumbrado público.
Horas más tarde, el presidente ecuatoriano Guillermo Lasso declaró el Estado de Excepción en toda la ciudad de Guayaquil y declaró el ataque como un atentado terrorista. El número 58 solamente en Guayaquil en este 2022, aunque el primero que deja víctimas fatales.
A cinco días, la policía ecuatoriana ha realizado capturas de presuntos implicados en la preparación de los explosivos y en la ejecución del atentado. También se manejan distintas hipótesis sobre el motivo del ataque: desde un intento de extorsión a los comercios de dicha zona hasta una confrontación entre bandas rivales. Más allá de la razón específica, todo apunta a que se trata de un episodio más de la creciente violencia ejercida por grupos criminales vinculados al narcotráfico.
El país rodeado por fábricas de cocaína
¿Cómo surge la violencia narco en Ecuador? Para Fernando Carrión, académico de FLACSO especializado en temas de seguridad, un primer aspecto a tener en cuenta es la posición geográfica de su país: “Ecuador está ubicado entre los dos mayores productores de cocaína en el mundo: Colombia y Perú. En estos dos últimos años, Perú duplicó su producción y Colombia la incrementó en 25%”.
En diálogo con Pirate Wire Services, el especialista señala que este hecho, sumado a la baja institucionalidad estatal y la falta de una política explícita antinarcóticos, “hace que estos grupos criminales penetren en la institución pública”, tanto a nivel político como judicial y económico.
Actualmente, en Ecuador conviven alrededor de veinte bandas criminales, todas ellas vinculadas al narcotráfico. Según reportó la BBC, esta actividad se da principalmente en colaboración con el cartel mexicano Jalisco Nueva Generación, que les encarga asegurar y transportar la cocaína procedente de los países vecinos para luego, a través del puerto de Guayaquil u otras vías, importarla a destinos como Estados Unidos, Centroamérica o Europa.
Por estas actividades, los carteles internacionales acostumbraban pagar sus servicios en dólares. Sin embargo, Carrión alerta que, en los últimos tres años, este mecanismo cambió: “Empezaron a pagar en droga y esto significa que estos grupos locales tienen que organizarse y monetizar eso en el mercado local. Entonces, empieza a haber un proceso de fortalecimiento muy grande de estas estructuras criminales”.
Este hecho, sumado a que Guayaquil es el puerto “por donde sale el 65% de la droga”, convierte a esta ciudad en uno de los lugares más violentos y donde más cocaína se comercializa en todo el país. “Esto hace que Guayaquil exporte y consuma. Y, por su condición portuaria y al ser la estructura económica más importante, hace que sea un lugar donde también se lavan recursos económicos. Guayaquil tiene esa triple condición que le hace un lugar bastante peligroso”, refiere el académico.
Es en este contexto que sucedió el atentado la madrugada del pasado domingo 14 de agosto. Y si bien mencionamos que no es el primer ataque terrorista reportado este año en Guayaquil, ¿por qué justo ahora se dio uno de manera tan violenta en el barrio de Cristo del Consuelo? ¿Cómo así resultan fallecidas personas que, aparentemente, no están vinculadas con las bandas criminales ni con el narcotráfico?
Capturas, víctimas e incógnitas
Roxana Montaña había salido al balcón de su casa justo en el momento en que lanzaron la bomba. Se advierte que “unas 30 libras de explosivos fueron utilizadas en el atentado” y los informes policiales indican que “los detonantes fueron encapsulados con decenas de clavos, vidrios, fragmentos de metal y otro tipo de esquirlas”.
La explosión y dichos artefactos terminaron con la vida de Roxana así como con la de Jean Carlo Campusano (26 años), que había ido a una fiesta. “Los vidrios le impactaron en el pecho y en el cuello; no había ni una ambulancia o alguien que ayudara a mi hijo”, lamenta su madre, Cecilia. Otras dos víctimas fueron Ana Lucía Narváez (42 años) y Walter Álava (41 años), ambos se encontraban en un local de venta de caldo de salchicha.
La otra víctima mortal fue Vicente Agustín Loor (41 años), el único con antecedentes penales por tenencia y tráfico de drogas, quien se hallaba en una discoteca clandestina. Y es que, aunque era de madrugada, la Calle 8 del barrio de Cristo del Consuelo estaba normalmente activa a esas horas. Ahí funcionaban distintos locales comerciales, incluidas discotecas sin licencia de funcionamiento.
Precisamente, al momento de evaluar los motivos para el ataque, las autoridades ecuatorianas plantean como una de las hipótesis un ajuste de cuentas con el dueño de uno de estos establecimientos, una persona que recibe el alias ‘Cucaracha’ que resultó herido levemente y se encuentra fuera de peligro.
Otra de las posibles razones del ataque propuestas por las autoridades se refiere a un eventual enfrentamiento entre estructuras criminales. En este punto, aparece el nombre de Los Tiguerones, una banda oriunda de la ciudad de Esmeraldas pero que ha ganado mucho poder recientemente. Sin embargo, Carrión considera que “para que haya una guerra se necesitan al menos dos grupos y eso no se ve de forma explícita” en este caso.
Una tercera hipótesis es la referida a las extorsiones o, como se les conoce en Ecuador, las ‘vacunas’. “En ciertos barrios donde ya no puede entrar la policía, la seguridad la garantizan estas organizaciones criminales y para eso cobra los servicios que otorga. Si no les pagan, mandan una bomba o algún elemento para incidir en la toma de decisión del pago por la seguridad”, explica el académico.
Y aunque la policía ecuatoriana no ha informado sobre una razón en específico, sí ha realizado distintas capturas, entre la que destaca la de Darío Arturo Ch. (34 años), alias ‘Morado’, quien habría tenido participación directa en el ataque. Sobre él, informaron que gozaba de libertad condicional, que tenía siete causas pendientes —una de ellas por asesinato— y que portaba un grillete electrónico. En un allanamiento, le hallaron armas, explosivos, motocicletas robadas y supuestas evidencias de su participación en el atentado.
¿Hay una solución?
Para el académico de FLACSO, la única salida explícita que ha manifestado el gobierno de Guillermo Lasso han sido los estados de emergencia, es decir, recurrir a la mano dura. De acuerdo a las leyes ecuatorianas, dicha situación permite a las autoridades ingresar a casas sospechosas sin una orden judicial e instalar puntos de control en las carreteras, a fin de cortar las rutas de abastecimiento de las organizaciones criminales.
Sin embargo, Carrión sostiene que esta salida, que ya ha sido tomada en dos ocasiones este año, “no le está dando los resultados” al gobierno y solo reflejan un mal trabajo de inteligencia de parte de las fuerzas del orden.
“Se debe pasar de la mano dura a la mano inteligente, que supone construir un marco institucional, que no se tiene, un plan o una estrategia, que no se tiene, y meter recursos económicos, que tampoco tenemos”, propuso finalmente.