by Rebeca Mendoza | Dec 15, 2025 | Volume 10, Issue 06
Criminal networks exploit gold boom, weak oversight and rural poverty to finance violence and corrupt state institutions. Illegal gold mining has evolved into one of the most lucrative and destabilizing criminal economies in Ecuador, with armed groups carving out...
by Rebeca Mendoza | Dec 15, 2025 | Volume 10, Issue 06
How Washington’s fentanyl-first strategy helped turn a once-stable country into a key artery for global cocaine trafficking. Ecuador’s security collapse did not arrive overnight. It crept in quietly, fueled by a surge in cocaine trafficking that found fertile ground...
by Rebeca Mendoza | Dec 15, 2025 | Volume 10, Issue 06
Ana Cristina Alvarado While the government sought to expand the oil and mining frontiers, indigenous and peasant territories staged a strong resistance. This sparked what experts consulted by Mongabay Latam consider a “criminal and penal persecution” against...
by Rebeca Mendoza | Dec 15, 2025 | Volume 10, Issue 06
Lower gasoline costs bring short-term relief, while diesel adjustments reveal the state’s shifting role in energy pricing. Ecuadorian drivers are seeing modest relief at the pump this December, though the changes underscore how fragmented the country’s fuel pricing...
by Rebeca Mendoza | Dec 15, 2025 | Volume 10, Issue 06
Findings from the New York Immigration Coalition show Latino men without criminal records increasingly targeted across neighborhoods. Immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump has expanded rapidly and unevenly, reshaping how federal authorities operate in...
