Bloodbath in Manta is result of a turf war between local gangs and their Mexican cartel partners

By Sylvan Hardy

The surge of killings in Manta is the result of a turf war between the Los Lobos and Choneros gangs, according to the crime monitoring service InSight Crime. “Los Lobos and its Mexican partner, the Jalisco New Generation cartel, is taking advantage of the fact that the Choneros’ leader is on the run and is moving to fill the power vacuum,” the service report.

Police on the scene of another mass murder in Manta, part of a turf war between rival drug gangs.

While murders nationwide have dropped 20% since January, they have increased 50% in Manta and Manabí Province, National Police report. As of May 31, 68% of all murders in Ecuador have been committed in Manabí Province, the majority in Manta.

According to InSight Crime, the absence of Choneros’ leader Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”, has invited Jalisco New Generation and Los Lobos to compete for the drug trade routes controlled for years by the Choneros.

Macias escaped from a Guayaquil prison in January and is believed to be hiding out in Colombia or Venezuela.

“Macias was a powerful leader who ruled with a deadly hand, maintaining control of transport routes from Colombia to the ports in Guayaquil and Manta,” InSight reports. “Even though he remains at large, his authority has been effectively neutralized.”

According to InSight Crime, the Choneros had controlled cocaine trade routes on the Ecuadorian coast since 1999 or 2000.

Former Manabí Province police commander Félix Torres confirms the InSight report. “The Choneros and their partner, the Sinaloa Cartel, had control of the area for more than 20 years and had strengthened that control under Fito’s leadership,” he says. “With Fito out of the picture, New Generation and Los Lobos are making their move and it has been bloody.”

The bloodbath in Manabí is, in part, the result of the government crackdown on gang activity in the prisons. “Before the president declared the national emergency in January, much of the gang business was conducted in the prisons, where the gangs had almost total authority,” Torres said.

“That changed dramatically when the military took control of the prisons. Most of the gangs’ command and communication apparatus was dismantled and almost overnight drug trafficking management was put on the streets.”

He added that the Attorney General’s crackdown on corrupt judges also played a role in ending gang control of the prisons. “Many of the judges who were bribed to let gang members out of prison have been arrested and others are laying low, afraid they will be arrested too.”

According to both InSight Crime and Torres, there is “terror on the streets of Manta” as the battle for gang control plays out. “The extent of extortion and terrorism has risen to very high levels in the community,” Torres says. “Politicians, businesses and public employees in the city and province work in fear of the gangs and those not directly aligned with them are paying vaccination fees to the gangs.”

He added that Sunday’s murder of Cristhian Nieto, an alternate National Assemblyman and social media influencer, illustrates the reach of gang influence. “The investigation is ongoing and I won’t comment on it other than to say that Nieto had connections to one of the gangs,” he said.

Torres says the government’s decision last week to relocate the police and armed force command center to Manta could reduce the violence but says that “brute force” is not the answer. “What the government lacks is a sophisticated intelligence capability,” he says. “They need inside information, people working within the gangs, to effectively combat the violence, and they currently do not have that.”

Ultimately, Torres says, the government must focus its attention on the drug trade routes and the ports. “The situation in Manabí is a symptom of a larger problem that, so far, has not been controlled.”