There can be no human rights without the rule of law. When a country descends into narco-violence, human rights are gone.

Ecuador dominated international headlines on January 9, when 13 heavily armed gunmen stormed the studios of TC Television, a public TV channel in Guayaquil, the country’s largest city, during a live newscast. Several shots were fired, although no one was killed in the station.

The violence began earlier in the week with a series of prison riots, which resulted in the escape of two notorious drug lords: José Adolfo Macías Salazar, alias “Fito,” of the group Los Choneros, and Fabricio Colón Pico, alias “Capitan Pico,” from Los Lobos. Apart from the attack on the television station, there were also car bombs, kidnappings, as well as an attack on a university in Guayaquil that resulted in hostage taking.

In response, President Guillermo Lasso has deployed the military to aid the police in a massive crackdown on gangs, which he dubbed an "internal armed conflict." Over the past several days, more than ten people were killed in numerous attacks by drug gangs, prompting the president to declare a state of emergency that will last for at least 60 days. Shortly after the announcement, at least 125 prison guards and 14 administrative staff members were taken hostage in five prisons across the nation.

This marked the second major attack on the news station in the past year. In March of last year, several Ecuadorian media outlets, including TC Television, received letter bombs disguised as USB drives. One presenter, Lenin Artieda, was injured when he opened the package and plugged the drive into his computer. Investigations revealed that the explosive devices contained "military-type" explosives. This incident, attributed to drug trafficking gangs, raised concerns about the increasing threats and intimidation faced by Ecuadorian journalists.

Simultaneously, innocent civilians are losing their lives. In the previous year alone, 8,000 people were murdered, and the country’s murder rate has quadrupled over the past five years.

President Noboa appears to have taken recent events to heart and has vowed to make permanent changes in the country. “The time is over when drug trafficking convicts, hitmen, and organized crime dictate to the government what to do,” Noboa said in a video released on January 8. The 36-year-old Noboa, elected after the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in August, has promised to combat the drug gangs. Until recently, although Ecuador was not as safe as the United States or Western Europe, it was still safer than most of the nations along the narco trail from the Andes to the US Southern border.

In narcotrafficking studies, countries are typically classified as source countries, transit countries, and user countries. For cocaine, the US is considered the user country. Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia are considered source countries, while El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, all of which have notoriously high crime rates, are regarded as crucial transit countries.

While Ecuador is not directly on the transit route to the US, it is still surrounded by source countries, and its extensive coastline and porous borders with Colombia and Peru make it attractive for drug traffickers. Criminal organizations, including Colombian cartels and local Ecuadorian gangs, exploit these vulnerabilities to transport cocaine by land, air, and sea.

On the domestic front, a portion of the cocaine that transits through the country remains within Ecuador. Consequently, cocaine use, particularly among young people, is a growing concern. Other drugs like marijuana and synthetic narcotics are also consumed domestically, although to a lesser extent compared to cocaine. The increase in drug use is driven by factors such as poverty, lack of opportunity, and gang influence.

Ecuador has some small-scale cocaine production in remote areas. Money laundering is also common because of Ecuador’s dollarized economy. Additionally, where there are drugs and illegal money, there is violence. Drug trafficking fuels gang violence and turf wars, leading to increased crime rates and insecurity for citizens.

Ecuador, with a Corruption Perception Index score of 36/100 (where 100 is deemed completely clean), holds the 101st position out of 180 countries, according to Transparency International. In terms of human freedom, Ecuador has a score of 7.03. This is better than traditional transit countries, such as Nicaragua, where the corruption perception index is 19/100, and the country ranks 167/180, giving Nicaragua a human freedom index of 5.4.

For perspective, the United States boasts a corruption score of 69/100, securing the 24th spot out of 180 nations. The correlation between human freedoms and corruption is evident, with the US achieving a higher human freedom score of 8.39. This places the US on par with the democracies of Western Europe, Canada, and Australia.