On the Radar: Ecuador’s Escalating Crime Crisis

El Mencho’s lavish funeral in Mexico, why violence is rising in Ecuador despite hard-line security measures, and the future of the South American country’s fight against organized crime. are the focus of this week’s roundup of the main organized crime stories in Latin America.

Transcript

What does the lavish funeral of one of Mexico’s most feared drug lords reveal about his legacy?
Why is violence peaking in Ecuador despite an aggressive anti-crime crackdown?
And what does Ecuador’s growing reliance on international partners tell us about the future of its organized crime fight?This is On the Radar, where we look at the stories shaping organized crime in the Americas each week.

First, Mexico.More than a week after the death of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho,” the longtime leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, an opulent funeral was held for him in Guadalajara. His gold coffin was surrounded by hundreds of floral wreaths and accompanied by banda music.

The scene belied a deep contradiction.While one of the country’s most notorious traffickers received a lavish farewell, Mexico continues to grapple with a disappearance crisis that doesn’t allow families to have the closure of burying their missing loved one. Tens of thousands of people remain missing, many believed dead in clandestine graves that authorities have yet to identify.

In Ecuador, President Daniel Noboa extended the country’s state of emergency for another 30 days, including in key corridors for for the drug trade.But despite sweeping security measures and a constant military presence, violence has continued to intensify.

Behind the numbers is a deeper transformation: Ecuador’s criminal landscape is fragmenting. Increasingly numerous rival groups are competing for control of trafficking routes, ports, and prisons, fueling an ongoing wave of violence that the government has struggled to contain.

Finally, Ecuador is also deepening its international alliances in the fight against organized crime — but in two very different ways.On March 3, Noboa announced the start of joint military operations with the United States, targeting “terrorist organizations” linked to drug trafficking and illegal mining.At nearly the same time, another operation — coordinated by Ecuadorian authorities alongside Europol, the DEA, and police in the Netherlands and Belgium—dismantled a trafficking network tied to the Lobos gang that shipped cocaine to Europe for the Albanian mafia.

Ecuador’s European partners emphasize intelligence-sharing and law enforcement coordination to dismantle transnational criminal networks.The United States, by contrast, is leaning toward a more militarized approach.For Noboa, embracing both strategies may be as much political as it is strategic. Facing rising violence and mounting pressure at home, his government has repeatedly argued that Ecuador cannot confront its security crisis without stronger international intervention.

That’s all for this week’s On the Radar.

For more on these stories, explore our in-depth coverage at InsightCrime.org — including our criminal profile of El Mencho, analysis of Ecuador’s evolving criminal landscape, and reporting on the regional security strategies shaping the fight against organized crime across Latin America.See you next week!

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