Luis Chonillo, the new mayor of Duran, Ecuador, was on his way to his inauguration when assassins ambushed his convoy and opened fire.
"I only had two minutes to survive," the 39-year-old politician recalled as he rushed into a nearby house, took refuge in the bathroom and escaped.
Two police guards and a passerby were killed in the attempted assassination on May 15, 2023. Mr. Chonillo’s family members have been forced to leave the country and have not been able to return because police have not yet caught the killers, as Ecuador deals with one of the worst outbreaks of gang violence in its history.
“I call myself a ‘nomad mayor’, who travels from place to place and cannot stay in one place for more than two nights,” Mr Chonillo told the Guardian from a safe house deep in the mountains of Ecuador. He is escorted by police and works mostly online. He has not sat in the mayor’s chair in city hall since taking office.
Mr. Luis Chonillo, mayor of Duran, wears a bulletproof vest when interacting with people. Photo: Guardian
President Daniel Noboa declared on January 10 that Ecuador was at war with drug gangs, two days after drug lord Adolfo Macias escaped from prison, sparking riots in the country and making criminal organizations more aggressive.
Located across the Guayas River from Ecuador’s most important port city, Guayaquil, Duran has become a strategic hub for drug shipments from Colombia and Peru, the world’s two leading cocaine-producing countries. From there, the drugs are shipped to the United States and Europe in containers of fruit and food.
Location of Guayaquil and Duran. Graphics: Michelin
During the period 2007-2017, Ecuador was an "oasis of peace" in South America, when former President Rafael Correa agreed to negotiate with the gangs. He opened the way to reform, pouring subsidies into the gangs, on the condition that they register as local cultural organizations and end all violent activities.
Ecuador's murder rate fell by nearly 70 percent during this period. But the security situation deteriorated during Correa's tenure, especially since the government of neighboring Colombia signed a 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
Much of the drug-smuggling route from southern Colombia to Ecuadorian ports was once controlled by the Farc. After the separatist movement agreed to disband in a peace deal, powerful Mexican drug cartels sought to take its place, offering money and weapons to entice local criminal groups to create new smuggling corridors.
As a result, Guayaquil and Duran have become crime hotspots. Ecuador's military intelligence agency warns that the country has become a transit point for 40% of Colombia's cocaine production.
Ecuadorian police crack down on prisoners in Guayaquil, January 18. Photo: AFP
A day before declaring war on drug cartels, President Noboa designated 22 gangs with some 20,000 members as terrorist organizations, making them legitimate military targets for the army.
Since declaring war on the gangs, Ecuadorian police have carried out 15,000 anti-crime operations, arresting thousands. Mayor Chonillo insists Ecuador will overcome its drug scourge. "Sooner or later, the country will emerge from this nightmare, and remember it as a dark past," he said.
But for now, he has no choice but to continue working remotely, holding online meetings to run the city amid gang violence.
Duc Trung (According to Guardian )
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