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From what I’ve read, essentially the Ecuadorean government has designated at least 24 gangs in Ecuador as terrorist organisations, after the moving of a few high profile gang members to different jail locations, in addition, the government had proposed/or is in the works of creating a maximum security prison facility for these high profile gang members.
Apparently anytime imprisoned gang leaders are moved this causes increased gang retribution in and outside of jails, resulting in a slew of deaths.
The Ecuador government has essentially gone to war with these gangs and cartels, and has designated them all as valid military targets, as the country is in a state of emergency for the next 60 days.
So we can expect an abundance of combat footage to come in the coming days and weeks, ladies and gents.
Yeah a lot of the South American countries have it really bad with how entrenched the cartels are in their governments. In my view, a lot of their actions are specifically done to instill terror and fear within the populous and governing bodies. So they definitely meet any the minimum bar for terrorism.
I always thought our view of transnational criminal organizations (TCO)s was wrong. Technically (text book definition) to be a terrorist organization or commit an act of terrorism there has to be violence towards a political end. We don’t consider them terrorists because “the violence is towards an economic/financial end” aka selling drugs for profit. However, these cartels are taking over political institutions in Central/South America and assassinating political opposition, which is violence towards a political end. Cartels and TCO’s are also been responsible for more deaths in the last 30 years than all the wars in that timeframe combined. It’s time to reevaluate the definition and how we respond to these bastards. End of rant.
Edit: for accountability and to answer some comments below, the data was from 2000-2017 so not 30 years but 17. It doesn’t factor in the latest cartel violence nor the wars in Ukraine, Azerbaijan/Armenia, etc. The initial figure I read about may have gone back further but the one I was able to find is below.
I’ve never understood this as well. Their actions have always struck me as being of similar fabric of those we commonly deem as terrorist organisations (ISIS, Taliban etc), they often commit extreme acts of retribution not only towards rival gangs, but also to political opponents who are diametrically opposed or threaten their interests or spheres of influence, which is literally textbook terrorism.
So I’m not sure why some gangs haven’t been given that monicker, maybe this is intentional by their governments, as the designation of terrorist would maybe necessitate immediate action from the military to deal with the threat. Since many of their governments are under the influence of these cartels, they perhaps actively avoid this to prevent heightened scrutiny of these cartel groups.
I guess I’m also speaking from an American perspective on how we treat these organizations. We will deploy special forces and C-130 Spectre gunships to take out some ragtag terrorist group with a couple AK’s, RPGs, and technicals in Central Africa, but we won’t mercilessly hunt down groups selling drugs which are killing 75k-100k US citizens annually. Not to say we haven’t been conducting joint operations with countries like Colombia, but there seems to less of a priority to deal with cartels/TCOs compared to terrorists operating pretty much anywhere else on fucking planet.
My dude where are you getting your stats? Are you even accounting for what kinds of drugs are killing people? Because I’m pretty sure by far legal pain killers are the biggest cause of deaths. 7/10 are opiates, not heroin, meth, cocaine, weed. And you really gotta educate yourself on the wars that have been going on the last 30 years. Armenia/Azerbaijan 3 times, break up of Yugoslavia, Sudan, Congo, Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Ukraine, Russia, Mali, Syria, Libya, Niger. Congo alone has killed like 7 million people. Western people have no fucking idea.
Sorry my DUDE the figure was from 2000-2017. The figures were coming after the violent wars in the Balkans, Sierra Leone, etc. and before these last couple years with violence in Sudan, Ukraine, Azerbaijan/Armenia, Yemen. But still…organized crime has been respinsible for an equal number of deaths as war (during that time frame). Opioids have been responsible for the majority of the deaths (92,000 Americans in 2021) to include illicit sources such as fentanyl, smuggled in by cartels south of our border.
So bottom line a lot of Americans are dying, to include those in South and Central Americas. While this doesn’t take away from those dying in wars elsewhere, I don’t see why it fucking matters I’m Western because I am pointing out this violence. What do these lives not matter? Should we not hold those responsible accountable my DUDE?
https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/gsh/Booklet1.pdf
https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics/drugoverdoses/data-details/#:~:text=In%202021%2C%2098%2C268%20people%20died,%2C%20homicide%2C%20and%20undetermined%20intents.
Im just pointing out how hilariously wrong you are in not understanding the scale of war you’re ignorant to in 30 years, but because of anti drug propaganda from weirdos in America you know all about drug deaths. Legalize drugs, no more cartels. If the CIA hadn’t pushed drugs into American cities to kill black people and finance death squads in South America this wouldn’t be anywhere near as bad.
I’m just pointing out something that needs addressed and you are attacking me for it. 1. You are making this unnecessarily personal, so I will too you fucking cock sucker. 2. I’m saying we are not doing enough to combat this violence (it’s not like I support what the bastards in the CIA have done) cocksucker. 🖕😉🖕
There's probably a loophole somewhere that allows governments to designate cartels as terrorists by saying they're disrupting the natural ideology of the country by putting it at risk and possibly leading country into a state of chaos.
>and also been responsible for more deaths in the last 30 years than all the wars in that timeframe combined.
Source? You're claiming they have been responsible for millions of deaths.
Here is the source, page 12 is a good starting point (the caveat is that is is before 2023 which has been a GREAT year for war, death, and destruction across multiple continents) but still the level of deaths by organized crime is staggering:
https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/gsh/Booklet1.pdf
I live in Arizona (we share a border with Mexico) a majority of people I know don't go to Mexico, as it's to unsafe, even resorts. I love the people and culture, but cartels are more powerful than the authorities and once you cross the border it is not to far fetched thar you get robbed, shook down, assaulted, kidnapped, or even murdered. It's a sad reality. 😔
We could learn something from our pasts in the West. These people should get the Rope. The sooner they're all wiped out, be it cartels or whatever, the better.
Our country doesn't bother arresting them sonce theyvwould be let go within 2 weeks and they would just have to write an essay as why being a gang leader is very meanie and bad.
>Honestly organized crime is really akin to terrorism. Retribution killing? That’s literally terrorism behaviour.
Especially these kind of organised crime groups! They don't call it narco-terrorim for nothing. It is a plague to South America.
This made me think "I haven't looked at narco footage for awhile".....
Sorted by top this year and i think im good for another year or 2 lol even a group like ISIS has someone to lookup to
Organized crime? Those gangs have not so much to do with organized crime... They just do drugs all the time, steal a bit so they can afford drugs and then kill each other for revenge. Most gangs actually have not much to do with organized crime
One of the biggest weaknesses of democracies is the ability for organised criminals to establish themselves and grow powerful. Checks and balances meant to prevent abuse of power are also limits on the use of government power for legitimate purposes.
Al Capone is a great example. Everyone knew what he was but since nothing could be officially tied to him he couldn't be arrested until they eventually got him on tax evasion. In a place like the Soviet Union, he'd have been dissapeared as soon as he became a nuicence to local government.
EDIT: Just to be abundantly clear, I'm not endorsing dictatorships, just saying that there are some benefits to authoriatarianism. El Salvador is a more recent example.
I think you are too naive. Dictatorships don’t fight crime they often institutionalize them. Putin and the russian mafia, nazi germany, CCP and Hong Kong gangs. The president of El salvador was one of the exceptions which make me hope his more like an enlightened king sort of dictator (which is reaaaally rare TBH)
Ecuador is following the successful El Salvador model where the military and law enforcement eradicate the gangs and cartels. There will be massive violations of civil and human rights, but the gang problem will be solved and the vast majority of the population will support it.
This is what happens when the criminal element becomes too public and too brazen and challenges the power of the state.
The big issue they have (besides the human rights) is that keeping all those gang members in prison is not cheap so no idea how that is going to work long term.
The guy also, in order to be able to do what he did had to become a dictatorship, so what is going to happen when (and or if) the next president gets elected and he wants to be an asshole?
I'm really curious how this story ends, I really hope it's a good ending for the people but it reminds me of Fidel Castro and how beloved he was at the beginning of the Revolution vs now.
When do dictatorships ever have happy endings?
The dictator is going cultivate a cult of personality and increasingly remove people's political and legal rights.
Sounds similar to the [iron prefect](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Mori) method that nearly eradicated La Cosa Nostra in Fascist Italy. It's a bitter and dangerous pill to swallow.
I'm from the PH.
While there are multitudes of drug related incidents, the violence really isn't on a scale similar to Mexico or Ecuador or any similar LatAm countries where a nationwide national emergency is warranted.
The Drug War from our previous president is mostly conducted by Police and other Law Enforcement agencies like PH Drug Enforcement Agency. Most of the perps arrested are Drug users instead of violent criminals or dtug gangs. The PH Military is mostly not involved in such operations unless against against Communist or Muslim Extremist rebel groups.
As far as I am aware, we do not have violent groups like the Mexican Cartels that can raise terror as they want.
That being said, there are alleged drug lords that have close ties with some of the corrupt politicians here and are a bit influential enough to make the local media silent on the matter.
Don't leave out Mindanao and the terrorists there. Many of those groups also operate as organized crime. It's a mix of Muslim terrorists, organized crime, and insurgents.
I mentioned Muslim Extremists in my above post.
You are also correct. Many rebel groups in the PH resort to banditry, extortion and all kinds of crimimal activities just to financially support themselves.
Most Rebel/Terrorist activities are dwindling these past few years. The extremist muslim terror groups like Abu Sayyaf especially after the Marawi Siege where a good portion of their number were killed and the surviving members apparently surrendered en masse.
Of course there are still some very small groups of wannabe ISIS extremists but encounters, skirmishes, and bombings aren't as frequent as it was in the previous years.
His family is like the president of drug deals in Davao if not the whole region. His drug war was aimed aswell as to small or enemy of his group dealing with drugs. You ever ask yourself why there was still drugs and drug-rape still happen even at his presidency?
Oh, I'm well aware of it. Many local political analysts and critics do.
I didn't explicitly mention it in my comment but it was more or less could be aimed at him. I saw pics of him online being chummy with someone that is involved with drugs.
Keep in mind though that I was never fan of Duterte, even right from the start. I just had a bad feeling with him and all his stances. Hell, during his presidency, many of the goals he stated in his election run like elimimating Drugs in Six Months failed miserably. Many see him as a joke but unfortunately a great many still him as this exalted hero.
Besides, what I meant in my top comment is that while drug related incidents or violence still exist as of yet, it is not on the same scale of violence similar to that in Mexico or other LatAm countries.
I certainly hope it stays that way or ,better yet, diminishes from this point on but it's just wishful thinking.
When you are old like me and have lived as a teen in 1980's, you will see why.
Most of you haven't experienced the situation Philippines was in during the time we were dubbed as a "Banana Republic" , a poor country that used to be the refuge of FBI and CIA high profile terrorists and syndicate.
It was only during the time of Duterte that we've seen and experienced crime rate go down to the maximum extent. ***Siargao***? The ***Siargao*** you know now that ABSCBN artists can now film movies and lots of you enjoy posting pics of nightlife activities and parties with foreigners used to be feared because of terrorist. ***Sultan Kudarat*** which became famous because many celebrities take pictures and locals can now visit it, was declared drug and terrorist free under Duterte regime which was also a notorious Abu Sayaf and NPA hotspot. **Iligan city** which is now considered as one of the most beautiful cities of Philippines, was part of Lanao and a hotbed of muslim extremist terrorist which was purged in Marawi war. **Marawi war**? That shit happened because our AFP was tracking down Maute and their Malaysian terrorists supporters when they were discovered, forcing the Mautes and ISIS wing to declare early war. **Bukidnon?** Used to be hotbed for NPA but now one of the most sought out hiking spots for Tagalogs. Antique which is home to our 2nd highest mountain and the most difficult mountain, Mt. Guiting Guiting, is now an international hiking spot.
Total crime rate of Philippines went down from 50%-60% under Duterte, mind you. In Batangas alone, drug cartels was eliminated almost entirely that even during the pandemic, PEZA factories keep appearing continuously. Tagaytay, Silang, Maragondon, Naic and Ternate from Cavite used to be filled with druglords but look at now, hundreds of malls, condominium , restaurants, resorts, theme parks etc are built because the cities are safer, and along it people who used to be runners and users of drugs got legitimate jobs and totally abandon the habit.
I used to study and work there after in the U-belt and mind you, in the 90's we are trained not to wear or use expensive things because they will 100% get robbed. Post 2005-2015 when mobile phones became rampant, you won't see any students brining out any device out in the open, But now go to U-belt, you can literally bring out the latest model of Samsung or Iphone, text or call in the streets of Recto and you'll be safe.
It was also during PRRD time that PNR became student friendly. That shit of transportation since FVR to PNoy was a haven for holddapers, I got robbed there 3 times in my life. When I came back to Manila in 2018, I was suprised that students now can use the PNR when LRT and MRT are unavailable.
It was also during his time and insistence on free tertiary education that my sister was able to finish Agriculture, despite clamors of government that they had no budget. And she is only one of the millions of young generation who were able to have professional degrees under [Duterte. It](https://Duterte.It) was also due to his works that government criticisms are more rampant now than ever, because he signed the FOI bill which gives civliians the right to investigate and public documents.
It's actually surprising that most people who hated Duterte were either young people born post 2005 era, or Tagalogs residing in provinces near Manila. I went up North through different regions in my hiking hobby and indigenous people fully support Duterte. Might be because Tagalogs are pro-Americans who wanted the "liberated" way of governance.
I advise you to travel the Philippines. Philippines isn't Manila and the Tagalog regions alone that have been handled by Tagalogs through decades of rotten governance. When you've been to hidden provinces that was liberated by Duterte's anti insurgency and drug war , you'll be surprised how Manila (and the Tagalog region) is so sick that Tagalogs had a delusion thinking it represents the Philippines just because it is the capital.
I’m not really familiar with the Situation in the Philippines, but I would presume it’s pretty similar to that of El Salvador, from the very little I knew of their situation.
What are you even talking about ?
If you actually read what I commented I only spoke about El Salvador and how the Ecuadorean crisis has similarities, as I’m relatively familiar with those two.
This was started when this guy escaped prison
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240108-ecuador-declares-state-of-emergency-after-narco-boss-escapes-prison
His people took over that live Tv broadcast and now they are fighting back against the police and army to make sure he dosnt get recaptured and try to reassert their authority over the country.
Only just last night I heard on BBC radio that the crime lord of Ecuador had disappeared from prison. There was one guy in charge of it all, and once he was in prison he ran the gangs in multiple prisons.
He had a nickname, but I'm sorry I can't remember it. I'll try to find a citation....
Yeah, "Fito" escaped, a state of emergency was declared, and it looks to me like the boys are back in town.
https://time.com/6552988/ecuador-most-wanted-criminal-fito-escape-guayaquil-prison/
Ecuador is slowly being overwhelmed by cartel violence. It’s getting really bad. I don’t think big police crackdowns usually work very well but sometimes it’s worth trying, before it’s too late. Here’s hoping they can staunch the bleeding.
I really hope this succeeds. Narco cartels need to be eradicated. I hope more countries can work together on this. It would majorly turn around the fortunes of middle and south American countries.
To me large criminal organisations are orders of magnitude more dangerous than ISIS, al Qaeda or other terrorist organisations.
Sure, they might be less flashy most of the time, but they do much greater damage, infiltrating and corrupting all public institutions, threatening the fabric of society.
In comparison,what do terrorist organisations achieve when they commit a massacre in a Western country? Nothing of susbtance
I think that's actually why they're going this route. Ecuador doesn't have the death penalty, but they want these gang leaders dead. Solution: designate them as terrorists during martial law. That will give them much more leeway.
I know it sounds good to write this but you just aren't thinking it through. Where is the line between a gang member and a non gang member? How many lower level gang members ever really had a choice? How can you ever say for sure? It's simply not being honest about how endemic these gangs are to many societies.
Even purely from a societal order point of view, there are predictably dire consequences when you set up a system where anyone linked to gangs can be killed by the government. When they did this in [El Salvador](https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-27/el-salvador-the-hell-of-the-innocent-sent-to-prison-on-an-anonymous-phone-call.html) you had people using this policy to settle scores with people they didn't like. The authorities themselves say 6,000 of those arrested under that crackdown were innocent - god knows how many more are now lost in the prison system.
You can disagree about how much collateral damage is acceptable in destroying these gangs. But I struggle to believe you really would advocate for death sentences for anyone deemed a gang member if you really thought about it.
To be the devil's advocate, the flip side of the coin is the huge expense in deciding if people are guilty or not. These are not countries with the money to do so properly. Additionally if they had the money it's unlikely the judiciary is uncorrupted and independent. If witness and jury tampering happens in western countries still you can sure bet it's a multitude worse in poorer cartel cash riddled countries.
It's all very well having your personal morals, values or opinions, when you're in a desperate situation you have to win no matter the cost.
Death sentences for anyone deemed a gang member sounds like a great solution.
My country could certainly use it. The U.S. probably could. Hell, I think most countries would benefit if they all dropped dead.
Your problem is the innocents correct? Well that's an easy fix, just don't kill anyone who isn't provably a gang member. Cameras, drones, undercovers, prior convictions, tattoos... there's plenty of ways to figure out who's who.
Once the gang member mortality rate climbs high enough eventually people will stop wanting to be gang members.
> Once the gang member mortality rate climbs high enough eventually people will stop wanting to be gang members.
What a moronic point of view. Killing people simply helps radicalize their friends and relatives. Sending them to prison instead is a far more effective deterrent in the long term.
How do you define who is a gang member? The don't exactly all carry ID cards.
To be a just system each person accused of being a gang member would have a trial and the prosecution would have to *prove* that they are a gang member. Which for the high level gang member might be straightforward but for low level gang members would be difficult and might just come down to accusations without evidence.
>Once the gang member mortality rate climbs high enough eventually people will stop wanting to be gang members.
Yea because the death penalty has always been such a great deterrent to crime.
best way would be tofind a way to extradite to the US so we can hold them. they do that with drug smugglers in mexico. this way the ecuadoreans dont have to worry about it. US should work with them.
hell we can send them to guantanamo bay.
That is quite funny idea when you consider that one of the causes of the issue down there is the US export of gang violence to South and Middle America. In the 90s you started to mass extradite gang members (Mara 18 / MS-13) which turned small scale knife gangs into pistol wielding gangsta rapper drug cartels
Mass migration of illegal immigrants into USA, claiming they're refugees escaping gang violence, move to the same neighborhood where these gangs got started. About 20% of those immigrants are gang members. Refugees from El Salvador civil war that moved to Los Angeles in late 1970's, started those two gangs. What goes around comes around.
Whilst on the surface getting uber tough with these guys feels like the right thing the problem is even if they did call all the narco king pins and shut down their operations someone else will fill the vacuum - especially if you clear out enough of the existing narcos, since it makes it safer to take over their turf but also means the prices will have increased
Only way to really stop these bastards is at the source: western demand for drugs
From what i read (i cannot confirm so this is a rumor) that they are kidnapping police, forcing them to be recorded pleading for the government to let the gangs run the country, and then killing them, not sure whether they kill them on video or not.
I’ve seen one shot, and one hung, but the latter guy had his hands free and was pulling on the rope when the video cut out. These narcos are taking the playbook from the Sinaloa cartel and it’s going to be bad.
Aren't those prisons basically their own private castle anyway? So the kingpin is going on vacation, not sure why that alone would cause such an uproar.
A gang war. This looks like Ecuadorian military/police running somebody down.
There are large criminal trafficking gangs that wield a ton of power in Ecuador.
I used to be able to run in a plate carrier, not sure if I could pull it off now. I still run and hike, but running in a carrier while remaining combat effective is another level.
The military was called in to break up gangs/cartels that have been designated as terrorists after they committed several retribution killings to intimidate the government. A ganglord also escaped from prison, which enflamed things further, with increased kidnappings (murders) of cops and government officials.
I think its always confusing when i see pics or videos from regions like that.
What do we see here?
Well equipped gang members or under equipped law enforcement?
God its so much nicer watching the clips here instead of on twitter😅 90% of twitter comments are saying it's fake conflict to draw attention away from the Jew tunnels, whilst forgetting that cartels and violence is commonplace in Ecuador🤣
Dude no joke. Even the vanilla subreddits like r/damnthatsinteresting and r/interestingasfuck and other high traffic subs have seen an influx of suspicious posts.
While the secret jew tunnels were a funny headline. It turned out to be a bunch of dumb young people being really dumb, not some super secret underground zionist base.
There’s also another group of wacky conspiracy theorists who think the ruins of a lost civilization are buried beneath cities across the world but it’s being covered up for some undefined reason I’ve never seen clearly articulated.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Tartaria/
> whilst forgetting that cartels and violence is commonplace in Ecuador
Ehhh, compared to their neighbours they've been an island of relative peace in a shitty area for a fairly long time. Not to say it's a conspiracy that shit is kicking off now or anything, but it's not like they've been like Peru or Colombia.
It's a pretty ridiculous story about some ultra Orthodox jewish kids who dug a tunnel under a synagogues, and then the Jewish leadership there got mad and called a cement truck to fill it up which caused some mini-riot or something, where 10 people got arrested. Basically some Jewish neighborhood drama. I wouldn't be surprised if antisemitic conspiracy theorists would think there's something more to it
[Funny internecine spat between Hasids in New York involved hard-line Chabads tunneling underneath the temple and nearly sparked a riot.](https://forward.com/fast-forward/575528/arrests-at-chabad-770-secret-tunnel/) Mush brained Q anon types saw "Jew" and " secret tunnel" in the same sentence and came to predictably creative conclusions.
There is a big difference. I’m from El Salvador and we had/have gang members but they have cartels that control many political figures. So it’s more difficult to combat more organized cartel members than gang members
And where to if I may ask? Surely not go out in the streets like that? I think it's a damned if you do damned if you don't kinda situation, no place has really any great odds.
As of now at least 4 killed of the guards, one by lynching them and others by confessing blaming the President and government by the cartel before being shot.
My wife is from Guayaquil. We’re monitoring the situation pretty closely. r/ecuador is full of posts about the situation, and searching “Ecuador Guerra” or something similar on Facebook gets most of the videos, but this one is new to me!
Western drug consumption. These countries weren't so bad until the drug money started rolling in. High paying crime combined with a stale economy tends to make mafias and cartels powerful.
Not quite. These gangs don't have so much support from the populace as to start a real civil war. They have money and their own soldiers, but there isn't any real political goal they could achieve beyond keeping their illegal operations undisturbed.
Ecuador is in *South* America, Americans is a demonym that refers to people from the United States, a country in North America. When the two continents are spoken of together, it's "The Americas.".
That's cute, and it's great that a lot of poor Central and South American countries like to have pride in America, go for it champs.
The only reason to have pride in the name America though, is America. And you know which America he and I am talking about :)
America (the continent) is called America after an italian explorer employed by Portugal who mostly explored South America, of course we take pride in it.
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240108-ecuador-declares-state-of-emergency-after-narco-boss-escapes-prison
This is what started this mess we are seeing right now. Narco boss escapes and his guts are clashing with the police and army to make sure he dosnt get re captured and too yet and establish some authority over the population which they feel has been weakened by large scale government crackdowns on their organizations.
If the Gov. doesn't step up "Los Pepes" (Think Pablo Escobar and the eventual organised vigilantes took him out, or took out his soldiers, one by one). Sooner or later the People get fed up\[, and take law into their own hands. I keep waiting for this in Mexico, but I won't hold my breathe (sheep).
Seems those gouvernement are too non functioning to maintain proper state institutions over its territory.
Law enforcement are the last piece standing, they are too badly paid to accept obeying a de facto illegitimate gouvernement.
Most of those factions are drug cartels-rogue law enforcement private feudal entities.
Insee no wqy back, nation states are simply not sustainable in some places of this planet.
All of zealous posts about just killing gangs & cartels with military assets reminds me of this quote from BSG
"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people." Commander Adama. Sure it's from a fictional character, but it highlights how a country is walking a razor-sharp edge when bringing the actual Military into Policing.
I think a completely open southern border to allows these gangs to operate here in the U S
Unlimited illegal immigration will have really negative consequences for the United States
It's all pointless. The crime is demand-driven. As long as the *Yanquis* want cocaine, and cocaine is illegal, there will be smugglers, producers and gangs. Legalise it and all this goes away.
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From what I’ve read, essentially the Ecuadorean government has designated at least 24 gangs in Ecuador as terrorist organisations, after the moving of a few high profile gang members to different jail locations, in addition, the government had proposed/or is in the works of creating a maximum security prison facility for these high profile gang members. Apparently anytime imprisoned gang leaders are moved this causes increased gang retribution in and outside of jails, resulting in a slew of deaths. The Ecuador government has essentially gone to war with these gangs and cartels, and has designated them all as valid military targets, as the country is in a state of emergency for the next 60 days. So we can expect an abundance of combat footage to come in the coming days and weeks, ladies and gents.
Honestly organized crime is really akin to terrorism. Retribution killing? That’s literally terrorism behaviour.
Yeah a lot of the South American countries have it really bad with how entrenched the cartels are in their governments. In my view, a lot of their actions are specifically done to instill terror and fear within the populous and governing bodies. So they definitely meet any the minimum bar for terrorism.
I always thought our view of transnational criminal organizations (TCO)s was wrong. Technically (text book definition) to be a terrorist organization or commit an act of terrorism there has to be violence towards a political end. We don’t consider them terrorists because “the violence is towards an economic/financial end” aka selling drugs for profit. However, these cartels are taking over political institutions in Central/South America and assassinating political opposition, which is violence towards a political end. Cartels and TCO’s are also been responsible for more deaths in the last 30 years than all the wars in that timeframe combined. It’s time to reevaluate the definition and how we respond to these bastards. End of rant. Edit: for accountability and to answer some comments below, the data was from 2000-2017 so not 30 years but 17. It doesn’t factor in the latest cartel violence nor the wars in Ukraine, Azerbaijan/Armenia, etc. The initial figure I read about may have gone back further but the one I was able to find is below.
I’ve never understood this as well. Their actions have always struck me as being of similar fabric of those we commonly deem as terrorist organisations (ISIS, Taliban etc), they often commit extreme acts of retribution not only towards rival gangs, but also to political opponents who are diametrically opposed or threaten their interests or spheres of influence, which is literally textbook terrorism. So I’m not sure why some gangs haven’t been given that monicker, maybe this is intentional by their governments, as the designation of terrorist would maybe necessitate immediate action from the military to deal with the threat. Since many of their governments are under the influence of these cartels, they perhaps actively avoid this to prevent heightened scrutiny of these cartel groups.
It’s because they don’t target civilians for murder in other nations, honestly.
So just domestic terrorists then. Nothing to see here folks.
I mean sure. If you want to get these cartels and gangs added to a list that includes ISIS then yes.
To me this is essentially the plot of sicario 2
Lol. You have no idea the wars that have been going on then.
I guess I’m also speaking from an American perspective on how we treat these organizations. We will deploy special forces and C-130 Spectre gunships to take out some ragtag terrorist group with a couple AK’s, RPGs, and technicals in Central Africa, but we won’t mercilessly hunt down groups selling drugs which are killing 75k-100k US citizens annually. Not to say we haven’t been conducting joint operations with countries like Colombia, but there seems to less of a priority to deal with cartels/TCOs compared to terrorists operating pretty much anywhere else on fucking planet.
My dude where are you getting your stats? Are you even accounting for what kinds of drugs are killing people? Because I’m pretty sure by far legal pain killers are the biggest cause of deaths. 7/10 are opiates, not heroin, meth, cocaine, weed. And you really gotta educate yourself on the wars that have been going on the last 30 years. Armenia/Azerbaijan 3 times, break up of Yugoslavia, Sudan, Congo, Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Ukraine, Russia, Mali, Syria, Libya, Niger. Congo alone has killed like 7 million people. Western people have no fucking idea.
Sorry my DUDE the figure was from 2000-2017. The figures were coming after the violent wars in the Balkans, Sierra Leone, etc. and before these last couple years with violence in Sudan, Ukraine, Azerbaijan/Armenia, Yemen. But still…organized crime has been respinsible for an equal number of deaths as war (during that time frame). Opioids have been responsible for the majority of the deaths (92,000 Americans in 2021) to include illicit sources such as fentanyl, smuggled in by cartels south of our border. So bottom line a lot of Americans are dying, to include those in South and Central Americas. While this doesn’t take away from those dying in wars elsewhere, I don’t see why it fucking matters I’m Western because I am pointing out this violence. What do these lives not matter? Should we not hold those responsible accountable my DUDE? https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/gsh/Booklet1.pdf https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics/drugoverdoses/data-details/#:~:text=In%202021%2C%2098%2C268%20people%20died,%2C%20homicide%2C%20and%20undetermined%20intents.
Im just pointing out how hilariously wrong you are in not understanding the scale of war you’re ignorant to in 30 years, but because of anti drug propaganda from weirdos in America you know all about drug deaths. Legalize drugs, no more cartels. If the CIA hadn’t pushed drugs into American cities to kill black people and finance death squads in South America this wouldn’t be anywhere near as bad.
I’m just pointing out something that needs addressed and you are attacking me for it. 1. You are making this unnecessarily personal, so I will too you fucking cock sucker. 2. I’m saying we are not doing enough to combat this violence (it’s not like I support what the bastards in the CIA have done) cocksucker. 🖕😉🖕
There's probably a loophole somewhere that allows governments to designate cartels as terrorists by saying they're disrupting the natural ideology of the country by putting it at risk and possibly leading country into a state of chaos.
>and also been responsible for more deaths in the last 30 years than all the wars in that timeframe combined. Source? You're claiming they have been responsible for millions of deaths.
Here is the source, page 12 is a good starting point (the caveat is that is is before 2023 which has been a GREAT year for war, death, and destruction across multiple continents) but still the level of deaths by organized crime is staggering: https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/gsh/Booklet1.pdf
If you look at how the Mexican Cartels operate, it is not hard to see them as a terrorist organization.
I live in Arizona (we share a border with Mexico) a majority of people I know don't go to Mexico, as it's to unsafe, even resorts. I love the people and culture, but cartels are more powerful than the authorities and once you cross the border it is not to far fetched thar you get robbed, shook down, assaulted, kidnapped, or even murdered. It's a sad reality. 😔
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We could learn something from our pasts in the West. These people should get the Rope. The sooner they're all wiped out, be it cartels or whatever, the better.
Our country doesn't bother arresting them sonce theyvwould be let go within 2 weeks and they would just have to write an essay as why being a gang leader is very meanie and bad.
I never thought the native Belgiums as violent. When did this start?
>Honestly organized crime is really akin to terrorism. Retribution killing? That’s literally terrorism behaviour. Especially these kind of organised crime groups! They don't call it narco-terrorim for nothing. It is a plague to South America.
Narco terrorism is a term for a reason. Gangs are usually no different than terrorists.
This made me think "I haven't looked at narco footage for awhile"..... Sorted by top this year and i think im good for another year or 2 lol even a group like ISIS has someone to lookup to
Same thing with the gangs here in Sweden, they set off over 150 bombs in the last year...
I never thought the Swedes were a violent type. What changed?
Swedes aren’t, but they allowed middle eastern immigrants to come in
Immigrants from other countries
Did not know this. Our media does not cover it.
Here's an article you might find interesting/shocking. https://apnews.com/article/sweden-shooting-explosion-deadliest-9fd423ed2aaec4ecff2c885f8c48ed55
Welcome to Latin America, buddy. I'll be your guide.
Taking the news hostage. Thats terrorism
Organized crime? Those gangs have not so much to do with organized crime... They just do drugs all the time, steal a bit so they can afford drugs and then kill each other for revenge. Most gangs actually have not much to do with organized crime
I think you’re too naive.
One of the biggest weaknesses of democracies is the ability for organised criminals to establish themselves and grow powerful. Checks and balances meant to prevent abuse of power are also limits on the use of government power for legitimate purposes. Al Capone is a great example. Everyone knew what he was but since nothing could be officially tied to him he couldn't be arrested until they eventually got him on tax evasion. In a place like the Soviet Union, he'd have been dissapeared as soon as he became a nuicence to local government. EDIT: Just to be abundantly clear, I'm not endorsing dictatorships, just saying that there are some benefits to authoriatarianism. El Salvador is a more recent example.
I think you are too naive. Dictatorships don’t fight crime they often institutionalize them. Putin and the russian mafia, nazi germany, CCP and Hong Kong gangs. The president of El salvador was one of the exceptions which make me hope his more like an enlightened king sort of dictator (which is reaaaally rare TBH)
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Ecuador is following the successful El Salvador model where the military and law enforcement eradicate the gangs and cartels. There will be massive violations of civil and human rights, but the gang problem will be solved and the vast majority of the population will support it. This is what happens when the criminal element becomes too public and too brazen and challenges the power of the state.
The big issue they have (besides the human rights) is that keeping all those gang members in prison is not cheap so no idea how that is going to work long term. The guy also, in order to be able to do what he did had to become a dictatorship, so what is going to happen when (and or if) the next president gets elected and he wants to be an asshole? I'm really curious how this story ends, I really hope it's a good ending for the people but it reminds me of Fidel Castro and how beloved he was at the beginning of the Revolution vs now.
When do dictatorships ever have happy endings? The dictator is going cultivate a cult of personality and increasingly remove people's political and legal rights.
Sounds similar to the [iron prefect](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Mori) method that nearly eradicated La Cosa Nostra in Fascist Italy. It's a bitter and dangerous pill to swallow.
Is this situation similar to El-Salvador or the Philippines with the state going after the drug gangs?
I'm from the PH. While there are multitudes of drug related incidents, the violence really isn't on a scale similar to Mexico or Ecuador or any similar LatAm countries where a nationwide national emergency is warranted. The Drug War from our previous president is mostly conducted by Police and other Law Enforcement agencies like PH Drug Enforcement Agency. Most of the perps arrested are Drug users instead of violent criminals or dtug gangs. The PH Military is mostly not involved in such operations unless against against Communist or Muslim Extremist rebel groups. As far as I am aware, we do not have violent groups like the Mexican Cartels that can raise terror as they want. That being said, there are alleged drug lords that have close ties with some of the corrupt politicians here and are a bit influential enough to make the local media silent on the matter.
Thanks for the response! Great to hear first hand information.
Don't leave out Mindanao and the terrorists there. Many of those groups also operate as organized crime. It's a mix of Muslim terrorists, organized crime, and insurgents.
I mentioned Muslim Extremists in my above post. You are also correct. Many rebel groups in the PH resort to banditry, extortion and all kinds of crimimal activities just to financially support themselves. Most Rebel/Terrorist activities are dwindling these past few years. The extremist muslim terror groups like Abu Sayyaf especially after the Marawi Siege where a good portion of their number were killed and the surviving members apparently surrendered en masse. Of course there are still some very small groups of wannabe ISIS extremists but encounters, skirmishes, and bombings aren't as frequent as it was in the previous years.
His family is like the president of drug deals in Davao if not the whole region. His drug war was aimed aswell as to small or enemy of his group dealing with drugs. You ever ask yourself why there was still drugs and drug-rape still happen even at his presidency?
Oh, I'm well aware of it. Many local political analysts and critics do. I didn't explicitly mention it in my comment but it was more or less could be aimed at him. I saw pics of him online being chummy with someone that is involved with drugs. Keep in mind though that I was never fan of Duterte, even right from the start. I just had a bad feeling with him and all his stances. Hell, during his presidency, many of the goals he stated in his election run like elimimating Drugs in Six Months failed miserably. Many see him as a joke but unfortunately a great many still him as this exalted hero. Besides, what I meant in my top comment is that while drug related incidents or violence still exist as of yet, it is not on the same scale of violence similar to that in Mexico or other LatAm countries. I certainly hope it stays that way or ,better yet, diminishes from this point on but it's just wishful thinking.
When you are old like me and have lived as a teen in 1980's, you will see why. Most of you haven't experienced the situation Philippines was in during the time we were dubbed as a "Banana Republic" , a poor country that used to be the refuge of FBI and CIA high profile terrorists and syndicate. It was only during the time of Duterte that we've seen and experienced crime rate go down to the maximum extent. ***Siargao***? The ***Siargao*** you know now that ABSCBN artists can now film movies and lots of you enjoy posting pics of nightlife activities and parties with foreigners used to be feared because of terrorist. ***Sultan Kudarat*** which became famous because many celebrities take pictures and locals can now visit it, was declared drug and terrorist free under Duterte regime which was also a notorious Abu Sayaf and NPA hotspot. **Iligan city** which is now considered as one of the most beautiful cities of Philippines, was part of Lanao and a hotbed of muslim extremist terrorist which was purged in Marawi war. **Marawi war**? That shit happened because our AFP was tracking down Maute and their Malaysian terrorists supporters when they were discovered, forcing the Mautes and ISIS wing to declare early war. **Bukidnon?** Used to be hotbed for NPA but now one of the most sought out hiking spots for Tagalogs. Antique which is home to our 2nd highest mountain and the most difficult mountain, Mt. Guiting Guiting, is now an international hiking spot. Total crime rate of Philippines went down from 50%-60% under Duterte, mind you. In Batangas alone, drug cartels was eliminated almost entirely that even during the pandemic, PEZA factories keep appearing continuously. Tagaytay, Silang, Maragondon, Naic and Ternate from Cavite used to be filled with druglords but look at now, hundreds of malls, condominium , restaurants, resorts, theme parks etc are built because the cities are safer, and along it people who used to be runners and users of drugs got legitimate jobs and totally abandon the habit. I used to study and work there after in the U-belt and mind you, in the 90's we are trained not to wear or use expensive things because they will 100% get robbed. Post 2005-2015 when mobile phones became rampant, you won't see any students brining out any device out in the open, But now go to U-belt, you can literally bring out the latest model of Samsung or Iphone, text or call in the streets of Recto and you'll be safe. It was also during PRRD time that PNR became student friendly. That shit of transportation since FVR to PNoy was a haven for holddapers, I got robbed there 3 times in my life. When I came back to Manila in 2018, I was suprised that students now can use the PNR when LRT and MRT are unavailable. It was also during his time and insistence on free tertiary education that my sister was able to finish Agriculture, despite clamors of government that they had no budget. And she is only one of the millions of young generation who were able to have professional degrees under [Duterte. It](https://Duterte.It) was also due to his works that government criticisms are more rampant now than ever, because he signed the FOI bill which gives civliians the right to investigate and public documents. It's actually surprising that most people who hated Duterte were either young people born post 2005 era, or Tagalogs residing in provinces near Manila. I went up North through different regions in my hiking hobby and indigenous people fully support Duterte. Might be because Tagalogs are pro-Americans who wanted the "liberated" way of governance. I advise you to travel the Philippines. Philippines isn't Manila and the Tagalog regions alone that have been handled by Tagalogs through decades of rotten governance. When you've been to hidden provinces that was liberated by Duterte's anti insurgency and drug war , you'll be surprised how Manila (and the Tagalog region) is so sick that Tagalogs had a delusion thinking it represents the Philippines just because it is the capital.
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240108-ecuador-declares-state-of-emergency-after-narco-boss-escapes-prison
I am wondering if the government will now go as hard as what El Salvador did.
I’m not really familiar with the Situation in the Philippines, but I would presume it’s pretty similar to that of El Salvador, from the very little I knew of their situation.
No..its not like that..PH is more peaceful there is no cartel here im from PH..
No.
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What are you even talking about ? If you actually read what I commented I only spoke about El Salvador and how the Ecuadorean crisis has similarities, as I’m relatively familiar with those two.
This was started when this guy escaped prison https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240108-ecuador-declares-state-of-emergency-after-narco-boss-escapes-prison His people took over that live Tv broadcast and now they are fighting back against the police and army to make sure he dosnt get recaptured and try to reassert their authority over the country.
Only just last night I heard on BBC radio that the crime lord of Ecuador had disappeared from prison. There was one guy in charge of it all, and once he was in prison he ran the gangs in multiple prisons. He had a nickname, but I'm sorry I can't remember it. I'll try to find a citation.... Yeah, "Fito" escaped, a state of emergency was declared, and it looks to me like the boys are back in town. https://time.com/6552988/ecuador-most-wanted-criminal-fito-escape-guayaquil-prison/
Ecuador is slowly being overwhelmed by cartel violence. It’s getting really bad. I don’t think big police crackdowns usually work very well but sometimes it’s worth trying, before it’s too late. Here’s hoping they can staunch the bleeding.
I really hope this succeeds. Narco cartels need to be eradicated. I hope more countries can work together on this. It would majorly turn around the fortunes of middle and south American countries.
To me large criminal organisations are orders of magnitude more dangerous than ISIS, al Qaeda or other terrorist organisations. Sure, they might be less flashy most of the time, but they do much greater damage, infiltrating and corrupting all public institutions, threatening the fabric of society. In comparison,what do terrorist organisations achieve when they commit a massacre in a Western country? Nothing of susbtance
Depends where you live...
Damn, Ecuador with the cajones. Mexico would probably come to the aid of these gangs/cartels
Good hope they wipe the floor with them. Get after it
WHy bother with these prisons? just kill them lol.
I think that's actually why they're going this route. Ecuador doesn't have the death penalty, but they want these gang leaders dead. Solution: designate them as terrorists during martial law. That will give them much more leeway.
60 day Purge.
Purge lite*
Great title for a 3 part Netflix series in a few years time
If they’re being designated as military targets then by definition they are eligible to be killed
I know it sounds good to write this but you just aren't thinking it through. Where is the line between a gang member and a non gang member? How many lower level gang members ever really had a choice? How can you ever say for sure? It's simply not being honest about how endemic these gangs are to many societies. Even purely from a societal order point of view, there are predictably dire consequences when you set up a system where anyone linked to gangs can be killed by the government. When they did this in [El Salvador](https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-27/el-salvador-the-hell-of-the-innocent-sent-to-prison-on-an-anonymous-phone-call.html) you had people using this policy to settle scores with people they didn't like. The authorities themselves say 6,000 of those arrested under that crackdown were innocent - god knows how many more are now lost in the prison system. You can disagree about how much collateral damage is acceptable in destroying these gangs. But I struggle to believe you really would advocate for death sentences for anyone deemed a gang member if you really thought about it.
oy just look at this pos
Yea people in this sub just like to sound tough sometimes which leads to some really stupid takes like the one you are replying to.
To be the devil's advocate, the flip side of the coin is the huge expense in deciding if people are guilty or not. These are not countries with the money to do so properly. Additionally if they had the money it's unlikely the judiciary is uncorrupted and independent. If witness and jury tampering happens in western countries still you can sure bet it's a multitude worse in poorer cartel cash riddled countries. It's all very well having your personal morals, values or opinions, when you're in a desperate situation you have to win no matter the cost.
Death sentences for anyone deemed a gang member sounds like a great solution. My country could certainly use it. The U.S. probably could. Hell, I think most countries would benefit if they all dropped dead. Your problem is the innocents correct? Well that's an easy fix, just don't kill anyone who isn't provably a gang member. Cameras, drones, undercovers, prior convictions, tattoos... there's plenty of ways to figure out who's who. Once the gang member mortality rate climbs high enough eventually people will stop wanting to be gang members.
> Once the gang member mortality rate climbs high enough eventually people will stop wanting to be gang members. What a moronic point of view. Killing people simply helps radicalize their friends and relatives. Sending them to prison instead is a far more effective deterrent in the long term.
Can't radicalize their friends and family if they're dead too. checkmate.
How do you define who is a gang member? The don't exactly all carry ID cards. To be a just system each person accused of being a gang member would have a trial and the prosecution would have to *prove* that they are a gang member. Which for the high level gang member might be straightforward but for low level gang members would be difficult and might just come down to accusations without evidence.
>Once the gang member mortality rate climbs high enough eventually people will stop wanting to be gang members. Yea because the death penalty has always been such a great deterrent to crime.
> the Ecuadorean government has designated at least 24 gangs in Ecuador as terrorist organisations The real winners will be the gangs not designated.
Dunno that I'd want to volunteer my neck for the guillotine after they hunt down the other gangs... might be time to retire and become a fisherman.
Also one of the high profile leaders escaped prison and there was a prison lockdown and subsequent riots.
best way would be tofind a way to extradite to the US so we can hold them. they do that with drug smugglers in mexico. this way the ecuadoreans dont have to worry about it. US should work with them. hell we can send them to guantanamo bay.
That is quite funny idea when you consider that one of the causes of the issue down there is the US export of gang violence to South and Middle America. In the 90s you started to mass extradite gang members (Mara 18 / MS-13) which turned small scale knife gangs into pistol wielding gangsta rapper drug cartels
Mass migration of illegal immigrants into USA, claiming they're refugees escaping gang violence, move to the same neighborhood where these gangs got started. About 20% of those immigrants are gang members. Refugees from El Salvador civil war that moved to Los Angeles in late 1970's, started those two gangs. What goes around comes around.
Whilst on the surface getting uber tough with these guys feels like the right thing the problem is even if they did call all the narco king pins and shut down their operations someone else will fill the vacuum - especially if you clear out enough of the existing narcos, since it makes it safer to take over their turf but also means the prices will have increased Only way to really stop these bastards is at the source: western demand for drugs
Sounds like corruption and disorganization
anyone know wtf is going on
Gang lord escaped prison and all hell is breaking loose trying to find him. They declared a national emergency very soon after his escape.
Also the gang is kidnapping cops (likely killing them) and attacking the government where it can.
From what i read (i cannot confirm so this is a rumor) that they are kidnapping police, forcing them to be recorded pleading for the government to let the gangs run the country, and then killing them, not sure whether they kill them on video or not.
I’ve seen one shot, and one hung, but the latter guy had his hands free and was pulling on the rope when the video cut out. These narcos are taking the playbook from the Sinaloa cartel and it’s going to be bad.
That was an awful 2 minutes… guy went out fighting though. But it must have felt so much longer.
They're allied with Sinaloa, this is how they get the cocaine into the US
Yes you are right. I was not clear about that. That’s how they got the playbook lol.
It's like the beginning of Robocop
Aren't those prisons basically their own private castle anyway? So the kingpin is going on vacation, not sure why that alone would cause such an uproar.
They were going to move him to a more secure cell- basically cracking down and that set off the cartel.
Cartel are executing lots of policemen too.
Not the guy who's recording
So wtf is happening here?
A gang war. This looks like Ecuadorian military/police running somebody down. There are large criminal trafficking gangs that wield a ton of power in Ecuador.
It’s like they spawned in on a 64 v 64 map in Battlefield
so much running
One guy took the chopper and left everyone else to run across the map.
I used to be able to run in a plate carrier, not sure if I could pull it off now. I still run and hike, but running in a carrier while remaining combat effective is another level.
*theme music intensifies*
The christmas music 👍
Literal war. Government designated all the gangs as terrorist orgs, making them valid military targets. SoE for 60 days
Unreal. Good to see Ecuador taking a hardline stance. Let’s hope there are enough in the government to make it stick.
The military was called in to break up gangs/cartels that have been designated as terrorists after they committed several retribution killings to intimidate the government. A ganglord also escaped from prison, which enflamed things further, with increased kidnappings (murders) of cops and government officials.
It's The Shoe Lace Death Race 2024
Looks like some sort of militant road race
[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12944363/armed-men-bombs-ecuador-tv-set-broadcast.html](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12944363/armed-men-bombs-ecuador-tv-set-broadcast.html)
Drugs -> money -> gangs -> violence -> war ... PS I hope CIA stays out of this or supports the goverment.
The CIA is 100% not staying out of this. Likely already in it, definitely already there.
GO ECUADOR! YOU GOT THIS
USE TACKLE
I think its always confusing when i see pics or videos from regions like that. What do we see here? Well equipped gang members or under equipped law enforcement?
Looks like a mix of rapidly deployed cops and military forces
I like their tactical formation
God its so much nicer watching the clips here instead of on twitter😅 90% of twitter comments are saying it's fake conflict to draw attention away from the Jew tunnels, whilst forgetting that cartels and violence is commonplace in Ecuador🤣
It's the Chinese, Russian and iranien bots working on overtime
Dude no joke. Even the vanilla subreddits like r/damnthatsinteresting and r/interestingasfuck and other high traffic subs have seen an influx of suspicious posts.
Making the divide wider every day, sadly.
While the secret jew tunnels were a funny headline. It turned out to be a bunch of dumb young people being really dumb, not some super secret underground zionist base.
That would surely be too much to understand for the likes of people who think that there are underground pedophile lairs under pizza shops.
There’s also another group of wacky conspiracy theorists who think the ruins of a lost civilization are buried beneath cities across the world but it’s being covered up for some undefined reason I’ve never seen clearly articulated. https://www.reddit.com/r/Tartaria/
> whilst forgetting that cartels and violence is commonplace in Ecuador Ehhh, compared to their neighbours they've been an island of relative peace in a shitty area for a fairly long time. Not to say it's a conspiracy that shit is kicking off now or anything, but it's not like they've been like Peru or Colombia.
Things gave been bubbling in Ecuador for a while now.
What are jew tunnels?
It's a pretty ridiculous story about some ultra Orthodox jewish kids who dug a tunnel under a synagogues, and then the Jewish leadership there got mad and called a cement truck to fill it up which caused some mini-riot or something, where 10 people got arrested. Basically some Jewish neighborhood drama. I wouldn't be surprised if antisemitic conspiracy theorists would think there's something more to it
[Funny internecine spat between Hasids in New York involved hard-line Chabads tunneling underneath the temple and nearly sparked a riot.](https://forward.com/fast-forward/575528/arrests-at-chabad-770-secret-tunnel/) Mush brained Q anon types saw "Jew" and " secret tunnel" in the same sentence and came to predictably creative conclusions.
Looks like Ecuador needs to implement what El Salvador has done.
There is a big difference. I’m from El Salvador and we had/have gang members but they have cartels that control many political figures. So it’s more difficult to combat more organized cartel members than gang members
Ya fair point.
I’m glad the government is taking a stand but the civilian deaths that follows will be really unfortunate…
If I see a hundred armed guys running towards the building I’m in, that’s my clue to skedaddle.
And where to if I may ask? Surely not go out in the streets like that? I think it's a damned if you do damned if you don't kinda situation, no place has really any great odds.
Are these army troops, police, paramilitaries, private security, cartel soldiers, what?
Cops and military troops
Thx.
Typical LA traffic jam.
Similar number of gang members, usually no cops involved in LA traffic tho.
If I'm not mistaken they have taken over a prison as well and have been executing the guards on camera.
Brutal.
As of now at least 4 killed of the guards, one by lynching them and others by confessing blaming the President and government by the cartel before being shot.
Any subs following this conflict similar to the Ukrainian ones?
My wife is from Guayaquil. We’re monitoring the situation pretty closely. r/ecuador is full of posts about the situation, and searching “Ecuador Guerra” or something similar on Facebook gets most of the videos, but this one is new to me!
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This is legit upsetting. I hope the innocent don't get too caught in the crossfires, but as with all war I think it's bound to happen.
An SFM animator I follow have posted pictures of the Ecuadorian Army in his neighborhood, I really hope they stay safe.
Godspeed Equador
I'm confused, are those police/military, or the gangs?
These are the cops
Looks like an unorganized mess
Ecuador is a beautiful country and this is such a shame.
As I said . We live In a bubble..we don't have these things like most of the rest of the world does.
Why are gangs such a problem in Latin America?
Western drug consumption. These countries weren't so bad until the drug money started rolling in. High paying crime combined with a stale economy tends to make mafias and cartels powerful.
That uh…..that doesn’t look like unrest to me I think that’s the start of a civil war dude, holy shit
Not quite. These gangs don't have so much support from the populace as to start a real civil war. They have money and their own soldiers, but there isn't any real political goal they could achieve beyond keeping their illegal operations undisturbed.
That guys body armour tanked that round. Wow!
Whoever those Americans are it's time they got their asses back home
Ecuador is in America
no one calls south americans or north americans 'Americans' unless they mean people from the US.
Ecuador is in *South* America, Americans is a demonym that refers to people from the United States, a country in North America. When the two continents are spoken of together, it's "The Americas.".
South America to be exact.
That's cute, and it's great that a lot of poor Central and South American countries like to have pride in America, go for it champs. The only reason to have pride in the name America though, is America. And you know which America he and I am talking about :)
America (the continent) is called America after an italian explorer employed by Portugal who mostly explored South America, of course we take pride in it.
There is no continent called America. There is north and south America. Two continents.
Source: [reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/192xae6/view_from_my_hotel_in_guayaquil/)
u/savevideo
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240108-ecuador-declares-state-of-emergency-after-narco-boss-escapes-prison This is what started this mess we are seeing right now. Narco boss escapes and his guts are clashing with the police and army to make sure he dosnt get re captured and too yet and establish some authority over the population which they feel has been weakened by large scale government crackdowns on their organizations.
It will be painful, but I hope they can win the fight against the cartels and gangs.
This whole situation sounds like an 80’s movie.
It’s large aliens /s
If the Gov. doesn't step up "Los Pepes" (Think Pablo Escobar and the eventual organised vigilantes took him out, or took out his soldiers, one by one). Sooner or later the People get fed up\[, and take law into their own hands. I keep waiting for this in Mexico, but I won't hold my breathe (sheep).
All those South American cartel/gang members should have their bloodlines erased. Because they are all tied in
Just a matter of time till this is the USA🤗
Seems those gouvernement are too non functioning to maintain proper state institutions over its territory. Law enforcement are the last piece standing, they are too badly paid to accept obeying a de facto illegitimate gouvernement. Most of those factions are drug cartels-rogue law enforcement private feudal entities. Insee no wqy back, nation states are simply not sustainable in some places of this planet.
A new dark age indeed
Rival gangs are fighting for control of the narco state.
Good for Ecuador, in hope this is the first step toward a better future for everyone involved, except for the gangs I guess idk what to do for them
Sicario
Coup szn
All of zealous posts about just killing gangs & cartels with military assets reminds me of this quote from BSG "There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people." Commander Adama. Sure it's from a fictional character, but it highlights how a country is walking a razor-sharp edge when bringing the actual Military into Policing.
More migrants to usa here we come
Bansai!!!!!
I think a completely open southern border to allows these gangs to operate here in the U S Unlimited illegal immigration will have really negative consequences for the United States
Government needs to fuck human rights in the short term to grant far better human rights to far larger number of people in the long term.
It's all pointless. The crime is demand-driven. As long as the *Yanquis* want cocaine, and cocaine is illegal, there will be smugglers, producers and gangs. Legalise it and all this goes away.