The Kidnapping Epidemic in Ecuador, Told by a Survivor

“At times like these, I swear to you, you can’t even remember your mother’s name,” Felipe* told InSight Crime about the moment he tried to remember his iCloud password as kidnappers held a gun to his head.

In February 2023, Felipe, who works as a fruit broker for a large company, was the target of a random kidnapping.

“It’s so horrible. You’re in shock and all you want is to get out alive. You get to a point where you want to say, ‘Listen, just leave me alone. I’ve given you everything,'” he said.

These incidents are known as quick kidnappings and are classified as “common crimes” in Ecuador. They receive little attention compared to the transnational drug trafficking that has transformed the country into one of the most violent in the region in less than a decade.

But common crimes like kidnapping and extortion have increased at alarming rates in recent years. Felipe’s story shows the devastating physical and psychological effects these crimes have on Ecuadorians.

Crimes of Opportunity

According to Felipe, traveling in Ecuador has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You didn’t feel the same fear before as you do now,” he said.

Statistics from the Ministry of the Interior show that the number of homicides in Ecuador has increased dramatically since 2021. The country, which has seen a surge in organized crime violence, ended 2022 with a year-on-year increase in homicides of more than 80%.

But Felipe said he felt like the danger was far away as he and his technician made a routine visit to passion fruit orchards in the inland province of Los Ríos, just north of the coastal province of Guayas, on that sunny Friday morning.

SEE ALSO: Ecuador’s war on gangs stumbles in key coastal city

The vines on which the passion fruit grew formed a curtain of vegetation that blocked Felipe and his colleague’s view of the main road and the five armed men who drove down the road shortly after them.

The youngest looked to be barely 20 and the oldest wasn’t even 30, according to Felipe, who said he thinks they saw his truck from the road and decided to steal it and hold it for ransom. But when they realized the truck belonged to a big company — the kind that carries insurance, plants tracking chips in its cars and doesn’t negotiate with gang members — the criminals changed course and went after Felipe and his technician.

The men identified themselves as members of the Lobos, one of Ecuador’s largest and most violent gangs. But Felipe described them as amateurs, armed with only a revolver and with their faces uncovered. The man giving orders was also the only one who could drive.

“This was not planned. Even the spiel they gave us betrayed that this was random – a crime of opportunity,” Felipe said.

This method fits into an increasingly common pattern where the street cells of Ecuador’s largest drug trafficking gangs, such as the Choneros and the Lobos, rely primarily on these opportunistic crimes to finance themselves.

But Felipe found no comfort in their lack of refinement.

A comedy of errors

As he described the next four hours of his life, Felipe laughed occasionally. Though filled with violence and fear, the encounter played out like a comedy of errors.

The beatings started immediately. “They threw us on the ground, beat us, took our phones. Then they covered our faces and put us in the car,” Felipe recalls.

The young men quickly tried to figure out what to do.

“They were nervous. They asked us where the guns were, if we had guns, if we were police officers,” Felipe told InSight Crime.

The inexperienced kidnappers knew enough about modern banking to steal their victims’ phones. They gain access to their bank accounts via a mobile application, instead of the physical bank cards in their wallets.

SEE ALSO: Financial vulnerability fuels predatory crime in Peru

They were excited when they discovered that Felipe had $1,200 in one of his accounts.

“They were so happy to get money out of this,” Felipe explained. “They never intended to take us hostage. They didn’t even think about it.”

But the kidnappers’ good mood didn’t last long. They didn’t know how bank transfers worked, and their inexperience only made them nervous and unleashed a new barrage of violence on Felipe. As he tried to get the information he needed to transfer his bank balance to their account, the youths repeatedly beat him, paranoid that he was asking for their personal information to report them to the police later.

“And of course I did, but not to report them. I was just trying to survive the situation,” Felipe said. “Still, every question was a tragedy. They beat me for everything.”

With a gun to his head, Felipe completed the wire transfer. But there was one final hurdle. In Ecuador, interbank wire transfers take at least 20 minutes. Felipe said those minutes, tied up and waiting, felt like the longest of his life.

Forever changed

Eventually, the wire transfer went through. After the kidnappers confirmed receipt of Felipe’s money, they told him and his technician to count to 100 so they would have time to leave. Felipe’s technician had been so badly beaten that he could barely walk, let alone chase.

It took 15 minutes for the two men to stagger to a road and even longer to get someone to stop.

“Nobody wants to help you, nobody stops,” Felipe said. “I mean, I wouldn’t either. They see you all dirty, waving desperately.”

Felipe is haunted by the events of that day and now lives with a permanent sense of uncertainty. “I see danger everywhere now. Anyone can hurt me. I no longer stop on the road and help anyone,” he said.

And while he says he has moved on with his life, he also describes deep psychological scars.

“At first I had trouble sleeping. I kept hearing their voices,” he said. “I’m always on guard.”

His inner world reflects a national shift that the government was simply not prepared for.

SEE ALSO: From rhetoric to reality on Ecuador’s security challenge

Ecuador has specialized units with operational and investigative expertise to handle cases of extortion and kidnapping. However, according to experts, there is no national policy focused on express kidnappings and there are few resources to help victims cope with the psychological consequences.

“The fact that express kidnapping is a crime of opportunity shows that there is no comprehensive national policy to combat it,” Renato Rivera, coordinator of Ecuador’s Organized Crime Observatory, told InSight Crime.

Ecuador’s response to the rising threat of organized crime has so far relied heavily on militarization with near-ubiquitous support from Ecuadorians. But experts say this only affects perceptions, not the reality, of safety.

“The solution will not come from more militarization,” Katherine Herrera Aguilar, a political analyst specializing in public and state security, told InSight Crime.

But Felipe believes the troops on the ground serve a purpose

“I feel calmer when there are soldiers on the streets,” he said. “Even though I know it is a false sense of calm and the country is still dangerous.”

*For security reasons, InSight Crime has changed the name of the main character