With the distressing events causing a diminishing humanitarian crisis in Ecuador, citizens continue to worry about the country’s economic and political strains. Fortunately, as of April 22, with the capture of Captain Pico, citizens can feel hopeful for the future of their country as their president works to permanently change conditions in Ecuador as soon as possible.
With a population of 18 million citizens and visits from over a million tourists, several people consider Ecuador a beautiful cultural center and an environmentally diverse country in the world. Recently, the country has fallen in political terms with government scandals and violence throughout its cities. The once beautiful country has begun to transform into a struggling and potentially corrupt place.
The country’s problems trace back to early January 2024 when a series of attacks began due to powerful gang leader Captain Pico’s escape from prison. January 10, 13 gunmen raided a TC Television studio in Guayaquil, Ecuador. During this raid, the gunmen held numerous innocent hostages until the gunmen surrendered the same day, ending in a calm arrest.
“I did see the Ecuador news station attack on TikTok and Instagram. The people held hostage looked so scared. Thankfully, the entirety of the raid was televised so that people across the world could see one of the numerous terrible things occurring in Ecuador. It’s definitely concerning the amount of things going on that are affecting Ecuadorians. I just hope their government finds an efficient way to solve all their problems,” junior Evan Fernandez said.
January 8, Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa declared a nationwide state of emergency following additional prison rioters’ escape. Noboa originally declared the emergency for 30 days; however, the Ecuadorian government realized that homicides in the country continued despite police reinforcements. Noboa later extended this emergency until April 8.
Before the emergency extension, authorities of San Vicente found Ecuador’s youngest mayor, Brigitte García, fatally shot in a car along with her advisor Jairo Loor in the same city where she won the mayoral election a year before. Ecuador Citizen Revolution Party member Luisa González shared her thoughts about the deaths, calling the case an assassination. However, police officials announced that the shots came from the inside of the mayor’s car. This unfortunate case represents the limitless spiral of social disruption caused by gang affiliation in Ecuador.
As the gang attacks in Ecuador bring fear to citizens, the formidable weather concerns citizens as well. Recently, the El Niño phenomenon has affected Ecuador’s electricity energy imports from different countries, such as Colombia. Without electricity imports, Ecuador’s major cities face pre-scheduled power cuts, endangering hydroelectric plants used to power businesses and industries. One direct effect of El Niño, drought, causes water rationing among low-income citizens living in poor neighborhoods like Atuchucho and La Marin.
“Usually, in the U.S., if power goes out regularly, it’s only for a couple of hours. I couldn’t imagine having frequent scheduled power outages in a fairly impoverished city. Relating to their water depletion and rationing, Ecuadorian citizens are going through so much right now with their gang-affiliated attacks as well. Hopefully, change occurs for their beautiful country,” sophomore Aleya Bauer said.
