In: Revista de Ciencia Política 44 (2)

The year 2023 in Ecuador was characterized by a political crisis that erupted in the midst of escalating violence. While the political crisi was eventually solved by means of new elections, the security has persisted and even worsened during the first months of the presidency of Daniel Noboa. In response, in January 2024, the newly elected president proclaimed a state of “internal armed conflict” and declared 22 criminal gangs as terrorist groups. Against the background, the article reviews recent development in Ecuador as well as the corresponding academic scholarship to discuss two questions: Why and how has Ecuador – in such a short period of time – moved from being among the most peaceful countries in the region to one of the most violent ones? Which consequences of this escalating security crisis can we already observe for Ecuadorian politics and the democratic regime in more general terms? To make sense of Ecuador’s shift from a relatively peaceful to a violence-ridden country, we identify three interrelated sets of causal factors: Ecuador’s increasing role in the transnational drug business; the reconfiguration of Ecuador’s criminal groups; and the social and political context in Ecuador.

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