Drug cartel violence spreads through Ecuador

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Kate Adie introduces stories from Ecuador, Italy, North Korea, Denmark and South Africa. Ecuador was once seen as an oasis of calm in a violent region: despite lying between the drug producing hubs of Peru and Colombia, its society and politics had stayed largely free of drug cartel influence. But not any more. This year's presidential election campaign saw several targeted killings of politicians and the fear of violence is now ever-present on the streets. Katy Watson reports from Guayaquil. Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni promised to get tough on migration - especially by cracking down on those who try to enter the EU waters after crossing the Mediterranean in boats organised by people smugglers. Yet the number of arrivals is still growing. What might they find in Italy? James Copnall visited two small communities in Calabria which showed different sides of the phenomenon. There are reports of food shortages in North Korea so severe that people have died of starvation. Yet the regime in Pyongyang controls access and information so stringently that it's hard to verify the scale or intensity of the hunger across the country. Michael Bristow explains the obstacles to finding out the truth - and what CAN be gleaned from sources and observation from South Korea and from North Korean defectors. Going carbon neutral is a challenge at any scale - local, national, international or just household-by-household. Graihagh Jackson travelled to a community which is trying to make it work, and which may even be ahead of schedule: the Danish island of Bornholm, in the Baltic Sea. And after fifteen years based in the "rough and tumble" city of Johannesburg, Andrew Harding considers the time he's spent in South Africa - and where the country is heading. Producer: Polly Hope Editor: Bridget Harney Production Co-Ordinator: Gemma Ashman

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts
0:05.2	Today, the migrants rebuilding their own lives and some dilapidated villages in southern Italy.
0:12.4	Watching and wondering about hunger in North Korea, a country so closed off that it's hard
0:18.4	to pin down the truth. Why one Danish island sees going carbon neutral as an opportunity,
0:25.6	not a problem, and is today South Africa coasting on its past glories and global goodwill,
0:32.3	a correspondent bids farewell after 15 years in the rough and tumble city of Johannesburg.
0:39.5	The result of the first round of Ecuador's presidential election last weekend wasn't all that
0:45.2	dramatic in itself. No landslide victory or crushing defeats. The leftist, Luisa Gonzalez,
0:52.4	won the most votes, but will still have to face businessman Daniel Nabur in the run-off in October.
0:59.3	But the lead-up to the vote was a bloody one, with presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio
1:05.7	assassinated just 10 days before Election Day, and he wasn't the only politician who lost his life
1:12.4	during the campaign. Organised crime and violence have taken hold of this once peaceful South
1:19.2	American nation and started to seep into its politics. Katie Watson.
1:25.1	I met Franklin Torres at his banana farm, a couple of hours drive from Ecuador's biggest city
1:30.4	Guayaquil. His father was a banana grower too, so it's a big family business. And they've done
1:37.1	well. When we were there, there were dozens of people hacking the bananas off their stalks,
1:42.0	washing them and boxing them up. He ships around 6,000 boxes of bananas a week.
1:48.2	But things are tough for Franklin right now. After the pandemic, the price of bananas fell.
1:53.9	He says exporters are squeezing farmers, and that of course has a knock-on effect for the people
1:59.3	he employs. Economic problems are compounding Ecuador's troubles. Colombian and Mexican drugs cartels
2:06.8	are vying for a piece of the lucrative drugs routes, and they've taken advantage of a struggling
2:11.6	and corrupt country, and they've gained the upper hand. When Ecuadorians can't make ends meet
	...

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