NARANJAL, ECUADOR – Marcos Ruiz is lying face down in the mud, legs splayed and one arm sunk up to his shoulder in a narrow hole. When he finally grabs the crab burrowing in the hole, he pushes himself out with his other arm and sits back on his heels to examine his prize. TheContinueContinue reading “Trapped in the Tide of Organized Crime (Hakai Magazine)”
Tag Archives: human rights
From pristine forest to prison fortress: why Ecuador is sacrificing fragile ecosystems to build jails (The Guardian)
JUNTAS DEL PACIFICO, ECUADOR – Walking along a path his grandfather once used, Donald Cabrera, a villager from Bajada de Chanduy, on the coast of Ecuador, points out different trees and their uses. Talking about the imposing ceibo trees, he praises the fluffy white kapok fibre that falls from their branches, which his ancestors usedContinueContinue reading “From pristine forest to prison fortress: why Ecuador is sacrificing fragile ecosystems to build jails (The Guardian)”
‘Just by breathing we are contaminated’: schoolgirls fight to extinguish Ecuador’s gas flares (The Guardian)
LAGO AGRIO, ECUADOR – Fourteen-year-old Leonela Moncayo gets angry when she talks about the gas flares burning near her home. She grew up on the outskirts of Lago Agrio, a city on the edge of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest, at the heart of its oil industry, where patches of tropical forest canopy are interspersed with oilContinueContinue reading “‘Just by breathing we are contaminated’: schoolgirls fight to extinguish Ecuador’s gas flares (The Guardian)”
Ecuador’s justice system awash with corruption and death threats (Courthouse News)
QUITO, ECUADOR – It’s been nearly three months since Ecuador President Daniel Noboa declared an internal war against armed groups operating in the country in an attempt to quell the recent escalation of violence. But a series of investigations has revealed how deeply entrenched organized crime has become in Ecuador’s highest levels of government, including its justiceContinueContinue reading “Ecuador’s justice system awash with corruption and death threats (Courthouse News)”
CITES Warns Ecuador: Crack Down on Illegal Shark Fishing, Now (Hakai Magazine)
QUITO, ECUADOR – Ecuador is, once again, in the hot seat. Late in 2023, officials from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, more commonly known as CITES, gave Ecuador an ultimatum: if the government doesn’t clamp down on illegal shark fishing and the sale of illicit shark fins,ContinueContinue reading “CITES Warns Ecuador: Crack Down on Illegal Shark Fishing, Now (Hakai Magazine)”
A month of war: How did once-serene Ecuador descend into a nightmare of narco violence? (Courthouse News)
QUITO, ECUADOR – In November, Juana Francis Bone’s 14-year-old niece went to the corner store for a minute and never came back. When her family filed a police report, they were told each officer had some 60 missing person cases on their shoulders. Her niece would be just one more. Francis is a law studentContinueContinue reading “A month of war: How did once-serene Ecuador descend into a nightmare of narco violence? (Courthouse News)”
Ecuadorians living in fear after presidential candidate’s killing (Al Jazeera)
QUITO, ECUADOR – It was business as usual on the streets of the Ecuadorian capital, as people made their way to work and students headed to school just hours after one of the country’s presidential candidates was fatally shot after a campaign rally. But it was hard to ignore the newspaper headlines, radio banter, andContinueContinue reading “Ecuadorians living in fear after presidential candidate’s killing (Al Jazeera)”
Understanding Ecuador’s violent turn // Entendiendo el giro violento de Ecuador (Ojalá)
QUITO, ECUADOR – Pedro is a 51 year old father from the city of Esmeraldas, a largely Afro-Ecuadorian city on the coast of Ecuador, which has recently been named one of the most violent cities in Latin America. Esmeraldas has long had its fair share of violence, but over the past year, Pedro says it’sContinueContinue reading “Understanding Ecuador’s violent turn // Entendiendo el giro violento de Ecuador (Ojalá)”
Traumatised families demand reforms after Ecuador prison riots (Al Jazeera)
GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR – Alex Burbano’s youngest brother, Jonathan, was quiet and serious. The 23-year-old was halfway through a two-year prison sentence when he was killed in a massacre at Guayaquil’s Litoral Penitentiary in September 2021. It was one of the deadliest in a string of Ecuadorian prison riots last year, resulting in 119 deaths. AlexContinueContinue reading “Traumatised families demand reforms after Ecuador prison riots (Al Jazeera)”
‘We are all suffering’: What’s going on inside Ecuador’s prisons? (Al Jazeera)
QUITO, ECUADOR – More than 300 people have been killed inside Ecuador’s prisons so far this year, as a series of violent riots between rival gangs left officials scrambling to find ways to end the bloodshed. The latest riot took place last week behind the cement walls of Penitenciaria del Litoral, a facility in theContinueContinue reading “‘We are all suffering’: What’s going on inside Ecuador’s prisons? (Al Jazeera)”
Kimberley Michelle Brown 