Why Ecuador Is Losing Its Fight Against Organized Crime

Ecuador’s militarized organized crime crackdown on gangs has failed to translate into a sustained reduction in violence. Three years in, President Daniel Noboa’s government is now making tentative moves toward a more holistic approach while at the same time embracing the new hyper-militaristic security paradigm of the United States and its regional allies.

Last year, Ecuador saw record-high murders, giving it the worst homicide rate in Latin America. Although killings decreased this year, the country is still on track to record one of its deadliest years ever in what was once one of the region’s safest countries. How did Ecuador get here?

How Ecuador Has Tried to Tackle Its Gangs

The rise of cocaine trafficking, unchecked corruption, the fragmentation of the country’s gangs, and the loss of state control of its prisons helped push Ecuador into a security crisis that saw Noboa take drastic action.

The president declared Ecuador was in an “internal armed conflict” and designated 22 criminal groups as terrorist organizations in January 2024. The announcement came shortly after members of one of those groups, the Tiguerones, took over a live TV news broadcast, and José Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito,” the leader of another, the Choneros, escaped from prison.

SEE ALSO: The Tiguerones: US Terrorist Label Meets a Fracturing Gang in Ecuador

The United States has since declared the Choneros, the Tiguerones, the Lobos and the Chone Killers as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

Noboa has been keen to align himself with the administration of US President Donald Trump to combat Ecuador’s crime problem. He has defended lethal US strikes on vessels suspected of transporting drugs at sea, and coordinated with US forces in a joint strike on Ecuadorian soil in what officials claimed was a camp used by drug traffickers. Locals and human rights lawyers told the New York Times the site of the bombing was actually a cattle and dairy farm.

Short-Lived Victories

The sustained pressure from security forces has led to multiple high-profile arrests. The June 2025 capture of Fito, who was extradited to the United States a month later, and that of Lobos leader Wilmer Chavarría, alias “Pipo,” in Spain in November 2025, were among the most notable, as was the arrest of Tiguerones leader William Joffre Alcívar Bautista, alias “Willy.” Willy was detained in Spain in October 2024. Willy, though, was released in December of the following year after Ecuadorian authorities failed to guarantee that he would be safe in prison if they authorized his extradition in time for the deadline set by Spain.

But Ecuador has not converted these small victories into bigger success, but rather accelerated a fragmentation process that began with the breakup of the Choneros. The Choneros, faced with a leadership vacuum, are struggling to maintain unity and national influence. And arrests or deaths of top- and mid-level leaders have fueled in-fighting among the Chone Killers, the Lobos, and the Tiguerones.

SEE ALSO: Choneros’ Extraditions to US Will Test Ecuador’s Kingpin Strategy

Noboa has prioritized prison security, ordering the military to take over internal security in prisons in January 2024 and transferring hundreds of prisoners to El Encuentro, a newly built maximum-security prison, in November 2025. However, conditions in the country’s prisons remain an issue, with more confirmed violent deaths in penitentiaries in 2025 than the prior two years combined.

In July 2026, Noboa adopted a new security plan that tweaks the current militarized approach to combating crime by promising to address social and economic conditions that help fuel crime by reducing unemployment and school drop-out rates. 

But the plan prioritizes international cooperation. Noboa’s close alignment with Trump, and support for the US President’s Shield of the Americas initiative suggest force may still be the dominant element driving Ecuador’s policy.

Learn more about the criminal obstacles Noboa’s government faces in our complete and updated Ecuador profile.