Episode description

Ecuador has until recently been a relatively peaceful country. But in the course of a few years it has become a place dominated by violence and drug trafficking.

After Colombia struck a peace deal in 2016, Ecuador’s role in the drug supply chains has continued to grow in importance and its now being used as a transit route for cocaine smuggled from neighbouring Peru and Colombia. The powerful Mexican drug cartels are also said to operate through local gangs. Ecuador's murder rate has surged as local gangs have forged alliances with international crime cartels and the killings of politicians have rocked the country ahead of the snap poll on August 20.

Earlier this month, presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead while leaving a political rally in the capital Quito. He'd been one of the few candidates in this month's presidential elections to allege links between organised crime and government officials in Ecuador.

So why has the drug trafficking industry become so powerful in Ecuador? Will a new president make any difference? If the cartels are eventually pushed out of Ecuador, will they simply move to another South American country?

Shaun Ley is joined by:

Arianna Tanca, Ecuadorian political scientist at The Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Guayaquil

Will Freeman, Fellow for Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think-tank specialising in US foreign policy and international relations   Glaeldys Gonzalez, Fellow for the Latin America and Caribbean Program with the International Crisis Group

Also featuring:

Ecuadorian journalist, Isabela Ponce

Produced by Ellen Otzen and Pandita Lorenz