After the attempted attack on the hospital, the police arrested 68 members of the criminal organization

According to this source, the group wanted to “rescue an injured member of their organization” who was admitted to the hospital early this morning.

Confiscate guns and drugs

Weapons and drugs were also seized. A secret “re-education centre”, where suspected members of the organization were “hiding”, was also searched, police said.

Authorities have recently closed several such centers, essentially gang-run clandestine hospitals that officials say lack the medical equipment needed to treat patients.

On Sunday, about 10 tons of drugs were also seized near the town of Vinces in the western province of Los Rios, the army said.

“Andean Security Network”

On the same day, an emergency meeting dedicated to Ecuador, hit by unprecedented violence linked to drug trafficking, was held in the Peruvian capital of Lima, bringing together the member states of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN).

At the end of the summit, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador announced the creation of the first “Andean Security Network” against organized crime, an official statement said. The network will “guarantee a 24/7 service to provide and receive information, and/or request information from other countries (…) on the activity of criminal groups that have or may have international operations,” CAN’s ministers said. Prescribed Foreign Affairs, Home and Defence.

“We have made history, we have written a new chapter of CAN,” exulted Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld. “Fear paralyzes nations. We have seen that Ecuador has been paralyzed by fear, investment has been paralyzed, unemployment has risen and migration has taken place.”

Twenty gangs rule the roost

The proliferation and expansion of gangs involved in drug trafficking and racketeering in Ecuador has put border areas on alert. Peru and Colombia have strengthened their border controls, fearing the entry of criminals fleeing intense repression in Ecuador.

Considered a relatively safe country, Ecuador has been mired in violence for five years, against a backdrop of economic recession and poverty following the Covid-19 pandemic: the homicide rate rose from 6 to 46 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023.

Located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest producers of cocaine, Ecuador has for years been sheltered from violence linked to drug trafficking. But from an easy transit country, it has become an operations and logistics center for cocaine shipping to Europe. And about twenty gangs literally rule the law, especially from prison.

state of emergency

The terror reached a climax on January 9 with a live attack on public television TC by heavily armed men who briefly held journalists and channel staff hostage before police managed to free them and arrested 13 assailants.

Eight days later, Cesar Suárez, the anti-Mafia prosecutor responsible for investigating this spectacular attack, was murdered, shot dead in broad daylight in the center of Guayaquil (southwest).