Ecuador is living in a nightmare
Lesson summary
Hi there everyone, it’s Jeff and this is Plain English, where we help you upgrade your English with stories about current events and trending topics. By listening to stories about the world, you also learn how to express your own ideas in English.
We try not to spend too much time on negative stories, but this one is important. Ecuador is suffering an unspeakable bout of violence. Things have gotten much worse here in 2024, but the events of today have roots going back years. We’ll explore that on today’s story.
In the second half of the audio lesson, I’ll show you how to use the English expression “fill a vacuum.” This is Plain English lesson number 646, so that means JR has uploaded the full transcript and lesson resources to PlainEnglish.com/646.
Let’s get started.
Ecuador struggles with rising violence
Anyone in Ecuador watching the news on January 9 got a horrific shock. “El Noticiero” is one of the country’s most popular news programs; it’s broadcast from a studio in Guayquil, Ecuador’s largest city.
In the middle of the afternoon news, a group of masked gunmen burst into the studio and took control of the broadcast. The show’s host, wearing a blazer and open-collar shirt, tried to calm the intruders and control the situation, even as a long-barreled rifle was pointed at his neck.
If anything, the rifle was the least scary weapon the bandits brought. They waved machetes, machine guns, and even sticks of dynamite in front of the cameras. Camera operators and other studio crew were forced to the ground, and the whole horrific scene was broadcast live to a stunned country. This went on for fifteen minutes of live television.
Residents of Ecuador were shocked by what happened on TV—but many were not surprised. The country is living a drug-fueled nightmare.
To understand what’s going on today, you have to look back into recent history. The two leading producers of cocaine are Colombia and Peru. For decades, a separatist, militant group called the FARC controlled cocaine trade in Colombia. But in 2016, the FARC and the Colombian government signed a peace agreement—and the group mostly disbanded. Colombia also strengthened security at its ports and reduced the volume of drugs leaving the country.
So far, so good. But containing drug production and export in South America is like squeezing a ballon . If you reduce it in one place, it simply expands in a neighboring place. So when the FARC disbanded in Colombia, the world’s drug smugglers spotted an opportunity. And that opportunity was called Ecuador.
Ecuador is a small country sandwiched between Colombia and Peru. And it has a major Pacific port. Gangs from Mexico (which supply North America) and from Albania (which supply Europe) stepped in to fill the vacuum left in Colombia. And they stepped into a hospitable environment.
A former president of Ecuador dismantled much of his country’s anti-drug infrastructure. He forced the U.S. to close a military base near the coast, he reduced cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and he broke up a special Ecuadorean police unit aimed at stopping narcotics trade.
So when foreign drug gangs forced their way into Ecuador, they were pushing on an open door.
The result is shocking. For much of recent history, Ecuador had been one of the safest countries in the Americas. The number of homicides per 100,000 people is a crude but useful measure of violence. For many years, Ecuador’s homicide rate was the same as that of the United States. Now, it’s seven times higher, making Ecuador the second-most dangerous country in Latin America.
The government has started to fight back. Thirty-five-year-old Daniel Noboa took over as president in late November. And since then, the government has gone on the offensive. In late December, the country’s top prosecutor announced a major investigation into organized crime within the government. Thirty-one people were arrested, including high-ranking current and former officials.
The National Assembly approved additional powers for the military, and uniformed officers started patrolling the streets. Early this year, Noboa proposed a nationwide referendum that would ask citizens to approve even more powers for the armed forces. And Noboa also announced three locations for new maximum-security prisons: the message was not lost on anyone.
Gang members started responding in turn, escalating the cycle of violence. The country’s top prosecutor said organized crime had planned to assassinate her. On January 7, a notorious gangster escaped from prison. As news spread through Ecuador’s prisons, emboldened inmates started taking prison guards hostage—and killing them. Outside prison, gangsters set off bombs in the street, kidnapped university students, and burned cars. And then they took over the TV news.
Noboa declared a state of emergency and imposed a nationwide curfew: everyone must be off the streets between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. He declared an “internal armed conflict” with the drug gangs; the state of emergency will last at least until March.
In the meantime , every aspect of daily life is affected by the security situation. Nature reserves and parks are closed until further notice. Tourism has plummeted. Retirees and expats are scrambling to move out of the country, as once-peaceful beach towns have become epicenters of drug smuggling and violence.
Ordinary Ecuadoreans are terrified. Many have no idea how this could possibly have happened to their small, peaceful country. Normally busy streets are empty. Schools and universities moved to online classes for the protection of their students. Scientists had to cancel fieldwork in this country rich in biodiversity. Parents are searching for ways to talk to their kids about what’s happening, and why they see soldiers on the streets.
I read Ecuadorean newspapers online over a few days to prep this story—easily two-thirds if not three-quarters of the news is about the security situation. The saddest thing to me is to read the comments under YouTube videos and newspaper articles. Everyone just says “pray for Ecuador.”
The more time I spend in and learning about Latin America, the more I realize that the rich world’s insatiable appetite for illegal drugs drives so many of this region’s problems. What a tragedy.
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