Crime in Latin America
Ecuador’s crime wave demands a more sophisticated response, says its former attorney-general
Diana Salazar explains why investigators need more help from abroad—as well as more Kevlar-clad protectors at home
Illustration: Dan WilliamsOVER RECENT decades, international integration and new technologies have helped create or expand all manner of markets.
Unfortunately, this applies just as much to illicit markets as legitimate ones.
Cross-border criminality has thrived.
At its worst, this nefarious activity can become a serious threat to democratic institutions and internal state security.
That is the case in Ecuador.
Latin America has become the epicentre of the war against cocaine production and trafficking.
This war has involved huge economic investments by the region’s governments—in identifying and blocking transit routes, seizing enormous quantities of narcotics and prosecuting people involved in moving and selling them.
Much of this money has been spent on reactive judicial and military measures.
However, as violence and insecurity continue to grow, the wisdom of taking a reactive approach is rightly being questioned.
With a sophistication comparable to that of large corporations, the most capable criminal networks quickly adapt to the measures imposed by states.
They are constantly exploring new transport routes.
They nimbly switch manufacturing from one country to another when doing so helps them move more drugs or money internally or across borders.
Ecuador is particularly afflicted by this scourge.
A historically peaceful country, it has seen drug-trafficking, and the violence around it, explode in recent years.
This has transformed Ecuador from a transit point into a centre for cocaine production, processing, storage and distribution.
The “Global Report on Cocaine” by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, released in 2023, painted a disturbing picture, with coca cultivation and cocaine seizures in Ecuador growing exponentially.
The report described a “drastic” increase in homicide rates in the country, mostly linked to the drug trade.
And it found that traffickers from the Balkans and Italian crime groups had set up operations in Ecuador to secure supply lines to European markets.
I worked for more than a decade in various units of the attorney-general’s office before being appointed to that role myself in 2019.
Despite my long experience in the field, on taking the top job I struggled to comprehend the extent to which organised crime and corruption had penetrated the country.
Investigations carried out by my office between 2019 and May this year, when I stepped down, revealed that transnational criminal networks had forged strong links with local outfits, which were fighting each other brutally for control of new routes and markets.
Worse, it was clear that these groups had permeated society, corrupting the administration of justice, security agencies and high-ranking elected officials, and contaminating swathes of the economy, including export sectors.
Indeed, high-level cases—the biggest of which were given names, such as Metástasis, Purga and Plaga—revealed strong links between criminal groups and politicians, journalists, lawyers, judicial officials and even former legislators.
These links brought all manner of benefits for the criminals, from the return of seized assets to the reduction of sentences and in some cases the release of their convicted leaders.
This interference has also been evident in systematic and incessant attempts by certain political groups—backed by large financial investments—to obstruct or delegitimise investigations, mislead the media and spread lies through social media in order to help secure impunity for the criminal and corrupt.
These dark forces also exerted strong pressure on prosecution teams, which not only put thousands of hours of work into complex investigations but in some cases risked their lives to see justice served.
Lamentably, the state was unable to provide them with sufficient protection, adding an extra, almost intolerable level of stress to their jobs.
As attorney-general, I was assigned a squad of heavily armed, Kevlar-encased soldiers to keep me safe.
Many of Ecuador’s brave crime-fighters can only dream of such protection.
How can such a violent, widespread and well-co-ordinated attack on the law and democracy be confronted?
During my six-year tenure as attorney-general, the prosecutor’s office focused on developing strategies to locate and seize funds of illicit origin or destination, to hinder the operation of criminal networks and to prevent their assets from entering the economy.
Specialised units were created in areas such as transnational organised crime, money-laundering and asset investigation and seizure.
These units quickly built up technical expertise that helped them uncover important routes and collection points, dismantle entire criminal logistical structures and prosecute several criminal leaders and many accomplices.
At the same time, Ecuador stepped up “mutual legal assistance” (MLA) with other countries in the region and with global allies, including America, Britain and Canada.
Using MLA allows us to tap into a treaty-based system of cross-border judicial co-operation, which helps investigations when there are restrictions on information being shared between police forces.
As we built up trust with agencies in these countries, instruments like this became crucial.
They made it easier to launch joint operations against criminal groups, sometimes with parallel judicial proceedings in multiple countries.
In short, we understood that a national approach to transnational crime stood no chance—and responded accordingly.
My work as attorney-general ended a few weeks ago.
There is so much more to do.
The state’s responsibility to investigate crimes must be further strengthened.
It must ensure that prosecution teams receive the protection they need while carrying out their work and after they have completed it, when they remain at risk of retaliation.
The traffickers have spent years weaving networks in society, co-opting politicians, officials and businesspeople, developing more sophisticated ways to launder assets and bending the laws in their favour.
Such a powerful threat to democracy and state security demands an equally powerful response.
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