Ecuador "Canal Of Death"

Ecuador’s ‘Canal of Death’ Underscores How Its War on Crime Is Flailing ECUADOR Ecuador The canal in the Nueva Prosperina district of Guayaquil on Ecuador’s western coast was built more than a decade ago for agricultural irrigation, forming part of a 45-kilometer aqueduct. It was once a quiet, peaceful, if polluted, waterway in a city once known as the "Pearl of the Pacific." These days, the bodies of more than 100 murder victims thrown into the canal's murky waters have resurfaced – stripped naked or stuffed into burlap sacks, often bound and showing signs of torture and sometimes decapitated. Locally, the waterway has been dubbed the “Canal of Death,” a dumping ground for the bodies of drug runners, their associates and their many unfortunate victims in what has become the most violent neighborhood in the city. The waterway has become a symbol of the massive drug-related crime problem that continues to plague Ecuador, a country that over the past few years has become a haven for cartels seeking to ship their narcotics and other illicit products to Asia, Europe and North America. “(Ecuador has become) a critical link in the global drug trade,” said CNN. As a result, “Ecuador is turning into a war zone.” The consequences of that role are stark. Six Ecuadorian cities were ranked among the top 10 most dangerous in the world in 2025, according to the Mexico-based Citizen Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice. Three years ago, Ecuadorans hailed the arrival of President Daniel Noboa, who promised to crack down on crime. But analysts say that his tough-on-crime efforts haven’t been as impactful as Ecuadorans had hoped. “Once one of South America’s safest countries, Ecuador has in under a decade become its most violent, transforming into a hub of the drug trade to Europe,” wrote the International Crisis Group. “President Daniel Noboa’s iron-fist approach brought murder rates down at first, but violence has since soared again and crime continues unabated.” It’s also spreading to regions in Ecuador that had long managed to escape it. And as analysts note, it’s changing Ecuadoran society and its economy. Now, many people are afraid to go out to bars or restaurants or go shopping. It’s now become normal to refrain from greeting people in the street. As a result, businesses are struggling. Attacking the crime issue, meanwhile, is coming with costs. Human rights activists, for instance, have raised concerns about Ecuadoran security forces cracking down on drug gangs, often with the help of American military advisers. Human Rights Watch found that Ecuadoran security forces “tortured four Colombian farm workers during a joint operation with the US,” wrote the Miami Herald. The troops beat them, shocked them with electricity and conducted mock executions without ever charging the workers with a crime. “The two countries’ security relationship is deepening at a moment when both governments have engaged in serious human rights violations fueled by their insistence on framing their confrontations with organized crime groups as a kind of war,” wrote Human Rights Watch. This close cooperation could take a political toll on Noboa, who has pushed his close relationship with US President Donald Trump. Last year, Ecuadoran voters rejected Noboa’s proposal to allow foreign military bases in the country, illustrating their reluctance to allow him to take the alliance with the US military and private contractors too far. Despite that referendum and as the human rights activists’ complaints show, Noboa’s administration is working more closely than ever with US authorities, according to InSight Crime. American officials recently added Chone Killers, an Ecuadorian gang, to the US list of foreign terrorist organizations, freeing up funds, enabling sanctions and giving them authority to help local security forces hunt down its members, InSight Crime added. Meanwhile, Noboa’s administration is insisting that crime rates are falling. But Ecuadorans like Luis of Quevedo, in the agricultural province of Los Ríos, aren’t buying that. He says that he grew up in a peaceful, rural region surrounded by banana, plantain and coffee farms. Now, he and his family fear for their lives: He was kidnapped. So was his elderly father-in-law in a different incident. After paying ransoms, armed men came to their home and began shooting because they said they miscalculated and wanted more money. “We want to think that life goes on as usual,” he told El País. “But we no longer have that peaceful life we ​​once had.”