The Latin American Report # 168: drugs and bullets scattered around the region

Drug trafficking on the rise

Since last weekend, several drug seizures have been reported in Colombia and Ecuador, countries where this scourge is at the root of an insecurity crisis that undermines institutional credibility. On Friday 19, the Ecuadorian police announced the seizure of nearly 700 kilos of cocaine in a banana packing plant, a classic export product there that is also very effective for traffickers in camouflaging cocaine. The raided premises are located in a municipality in the province of Guayas, the source of much of the violence that has been destroying the lives of Ecuadorian citizens for the past five years (also on Friday, more than 400 kilos of the same drug were seized by the authorities, who found them in two vans hidden in the province of Santa Elena). Meanwhile, in neighboring Colombia, police seized 2.6 tons of cocaine in the coastal city of Santa Marta, also hidden in two shipments of bananas that were to be sent to the Netherlands and Belgium. With the rest of the seized drugs I refer to below, the volume of cocaine intercepted by the authorities in the coffee-growing nation is now close to 50 tons this year.

Then, on Saturday, in a joint operation with Colombian authorities, the Ecuadorian Armed Forces captured a narco-submarine that was approximately 30 nautical miles from Esmeraldas, another city whose coastal location—once a source of rejoicing—has also turned it into a strategic point for smuggling, sinking like Guayas into the deadly swamp managed by organized crime. The vessel was carrying more than 3 tons of cocaine, which on the market is worth close to US$50 million; three Colombian nationals were arrested. On the Colombian side of the operation, the Navy seized close to 800 kilos of cocaine that were being transported in another narco-submarine—15 meters long —in the waters of the Pacific Ocean; the three crew members were arrested. During the past year, the Colombian Armed Forces seized ten semi-submersibles, boats adapted with a deck that allows them to navigate "submerged", and which drug traffickers have been using since the beginning of the century to try to go unnoticed. These narco-submarines usually carry between three and four tons of cocaine, and their crew members receive about 1,500 dollars for each trip, during which they are exposed to the risk of being asphyxiated, as the construction is handmade, with an inadequate breathing duct sometimes.

_{Drugs seized last Saturday in Ecuadorian waters (source).}

But it was on Sunday when the Ecuadorian Army made its most forceful strike this year and in general in recent times. The raid took place in the western province of Los Ríos and resulted in the seizure of more than twenty tons of cocaine hydrochloride distributed in more than 730 packages. Rifles and ammunition were also seized in the raid, which took place in a warehouse in a rural area. According to information provided by the Armed Forces, the drugs were tentatively intended to be transported to destinations around the world "using low-performance aircraft". The value of the stash—which alone represents a tenth of the volume seized in all of 2023—would exceed $1 billion had it been finally routed by the traffickers. Shared below is footage of the bust.

🚨#EsteroLagarto

Hasta el momento ha contabilizado lo siguiente:

-Cerca de 22 toneladas de clorhidrato de cocaína distribuidas en 733 bultos.

Esta operación representa un fuerte debilitamiento a la capacidad operativa, logística y financiera del narcotráfico a nivel mundial. pic.twitter.com/J40gTel0NF

— Fuerzas Armadas del Ecuador (@FFAAECUADOR) January 22, 2024

The hitmen's route

Two Dominicans were murdered in a restaurant in Cartagena de Indias, according to information shared last Sunday by Colombian authorities. The commander of the police in the region affirmed that the "foreigners were having a conversation in a commercial establishment", to which they had been summoned, when they were attacked by armed men. One of the Dominican citizens, who had arrived a few days earlier, had a record of drug trafficking in Colombia, although the motive for the murder had not yet been clarified. Then, on Monday, three people were murdered in the southern department of Huila, in what represents the seventh massacre in the coffee-growing nation of the still young year. According to the NGO Indepaz, the assassins broke into a house in the town of Pitalito where people were just having a good time.

In Brazil, the alleged leader of a gang was killed in a restaurant on the coast of Río de Janeiro. The 44-year-old man, who was shot on Sunday, led a group that extorted money from residents in exchange for a "protection" fee, while also dealing in real estate and stolen vehicles. One in ten inhabitants of the Río de Janeiro metropolitan area live in areas controlled by these so-called militias, which also means that they de facto administer a quarter of the city's neighborhoods. Also in Brazil, an indigenous woman of the Pataxó Ha Ha Hai ethnic group was murdered over the weekend while others were wounded with firearms—among them a cacique, brother of the murdered woman—in an attack organized by farmers on disputed land in the northeastern part of the South American giant, in a manifestation of a long-standing conflict there. The native peoples claim ancestral possession of these lands, which have been colonized and forcibly exploited by farmers.

The red chronicle of Central America and the Caribbean

In Honduras, three men were murdered last week by hired killers in the northern state of Yoro, in the second massacre this year, which threatens to be even more violent than the last one. The victims were intercepted by gunmen who took them to another location and mercilessly killed them in a prone position, according to a preliminary report by the National Police. In this violent country, a feature that encourages irregular migration along with the economic challenges facing its citizenry, up to 13 people are killed daily. In Puerto Rico, six people were killed last weekend. A 20-year-old man was found dead with several gunshot wounds in the western part of the country, another 24-year-old was massacred in the north, authorities found a charred body in the capital, a 16-year-old was shot in Ponce, and a double murder was reported in Canóvanas. Most of the violent deaths in the so-called Island of Enchantment are the result of the settling of scores between criminal groups.

In troubled Haiti, the persistent violence got even more out of control since last week. The director of an NGO estimated some 20 people killed in the capital since Sunday—as always, with poor neighborhoods bearing the brunt—, counting among the victims people seeking to flee their homes or caught in fires set by criminals. The information emerges scattered and inconclusive. Residents are trying to protect themselves by erecting barricades independently in the face of the inoperability of authorities surrendered to the scourge of gangs. "The police are absent. State forces are not present", denounce activists. The UN says the government only controls one-fifth of the capital. However, the focus has also been on the chronic under-resourcing of the police, whose troops have abandoned their combat posts en masse.

_Source

And this is all for our report today. I have referenced the sources dynamically in the text, and remember you can learn how and where to follow the LATAM trail news by reading my work here. Have a nice day.