Drug crime in Ecuador intensifies
2022.12.29 14:39
Drug crime in Ecuador intensifies
Budrigannews.com – An exporters’ association stated that a combination of assaults on shipping containers and drug contamination of shipments is affecting Ecuador’s exports of goods like shrimp and bananas.
According to the Corporation of Ecuadorean Exporter Associations (Cordex), in 2022, organized criminal groups killed at least 63 people associated with the export of bananas, shrimp, and cacao—the raw material used to make chocolate—and injured another 1,500.
According to Cordex, threats and extortion have also been reported by the three sectors, Ecuador’s most important exports after oil.
In Guayaquil, a port city on the Pacific coast of Ecuador, on Wednesday, Cordex President Jose Antonio Camposano told journalists, “Insecurity worries us the most.”
He continued, “Because the state cannot provide it to us, the industries represented here spend at least $100 million annually on security.”
In response to inquiries for clarification, the government of President Guillermo Lasso did not respond.
Lasso, a conservative former banker, has been working to combat the government’s blame for rising street and prison crime and violence on drug trafficking gangs.
According to Camposano, there have been at least 12 roadside attacks in the past month, forcing Ecuador’s shrimp exporters to hire armed guards to transport feed supplies.
Exporters of cacao and bananas have been harmed this year by drugs that were included in their shipments.
According to Ivan Ontaneda, president of the cacao exporters association, drug contamination of shipping containers has increased by 400 percent this year, with reports coming from Ecuadorian ports all over the country.
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According to Ontaneda, “We’re losing markets because customers who buy our products abroad don’t want to be involved in legal or criminal issues, which is what is happening with the container contamination in our supply chain.”
The government of Ecuador claims that during Lasso’s 18 months as president, the country’s security forces seized 370 tons of drugs.
