Ecuador journalists under fire as drug war escalates By AFP
By AFP
Published October 11, 2023
To do their work of reporting the news — a crucial job ahead of Sunday’s looming presidential election — many journalists in Ecuador now don bulletproof vests and helmets.
Theirs is not a country at war in the traditional sense, but one caught up in a bloody battle nonetheless — between rival drug gangs.
Long a peaceful haven between major cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, the South American nation has exploded in violence in recent years as enemy gangs massacre hundreds in prisons, hang headless bodies from city bridges and detonate car bombs in the streets.
As the conflict between groups with links to Mexican and Colombian cartels has escalated — with the country’s murder rate quadrupling in four years — three reporters were among the fatalities in 2022, according to NGOs.
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