Inside Ecuador's drug war with US photojournalist John Moore

Getty Images special correspondent John Moore travelled to Ecuador in February 2024 to document the country’s response to the gang crisis. The resulting exhibition is on show at the Visa pour l'image Festival in Perpignan, in the south of France.

Sandwiched between Colombia and Peru – the world's top cocaine producers – once-peaceful Ecuador has seen violence explode in recent years as gangs with links to Mexican and Colombian drug cartels vie for control.

As the gangs have gained ground, homicides in Ecuador soared from six per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 to 47 per 100,000 in 2023.

Multi award-winning photojournalist John Moore obtained rare access to military and police raids in Guayaquil and in Esmeraldas province, entering neighborhoods previously controlled by armed gangs.

"When I arrived [in Ecuador], the military and the police had started very serious anti-gang operations, and they were fine with me going along with them because they wanted to show really what kind of progress they were making against the gang violence," Moore told RFI.

The result is a photo series entitled "Internal Armed Conflict" referring to earlier this year when Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa granted extended powers to security forces to battle the powerful gangs.

"The state of emergency really gave the military, in some ways, a free hand to operate, and what they referred to as the Mano Dura," Moore explains.

Since returning to the US in 2008 he has focused on immigration and border issues.

Read more on RFI English

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