The Take: Ecuador’s president declared a war on gangs. Can it succeed?

President Daniel Noboa’s crackdown on gangs has curbed violence in Ecuador – but has the country become a narco-state?

Members of Ecuador's armed forces patrol a commercial harbour area, amid the ongoing wave of violence around the nation, in Guayaquil, Ecuador on January 15, 2024 [Ivan Alvarado/Reuters]

Ecuador is experiencing unprecedented levels of violence. The most visible attack was on a TV station during a live broadcast last week. President Daniel Noboa says the country is in a state of war with gangs. But is it one that he can win?

In this episode: 

  • Alessandro Rampietti (@rampietti), Al Jazeera English correspondent for the Andes
  • Marcel Mettelsiefen (@marcelmettelsiefen), Director, Ecuador: A Narco State

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Ashish Malhotra, David Enders and Sonia Bhagat with our host Malika Bilal. Sarí el-Khalili and Miranda Lin fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik and Adam Abou-Gad is our engagement producer.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.

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Source: Al Jazeera

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