Hooded gunmen in Ecuador burst on to live tv with guns

[Bingoman]

This is a day after the Ecuadorean president declared a state of emergency following one of the notorious drug Gang bosses escaped prison

Hooded gunmen burst onto live TV set in Ecuador after drug lord escape triggers state of emergency

The TV station was attacked a day after Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency, which followed the escape of one of the country's most-notorious drug gang bosses from prison.

news.sky.com

Armed men storm an Ecuador TV studio during a live broadcast as attacks in the country escalate

Masked men have broken onto the set of a public television channel in Ecuador waving guns and explosives during a live broadcast.

apnews.com

 

[RD2003]

Latin America was regarded in the 1970s and '80s as a hotbed of actual and potential revolution, at least on the far-left. And the west took it seriously with its backing of the right wing death squads and general interference.

I don't really follow Latin American politics, but it seemed to be a source of radical left hopes on and off for a time during the last 20 years. What happened?

 

[Pickman's model]

Latin America was regarded in the 1970s and '80s as a hotbed of actual and potential revolution, at least on the far-left. And the west took it seriously with its backing of the right wing death squads and general interference.

I don't really follow Latin American politics, but it seemed to be a source of radical left hopes on and off for a time during the last 20 years. What happened?

You've forgotten the 1960s and the alliance for progress

 

[xenon]

Latin America was regarded in the 1970s and '80s as a hotbed of actual and potential revolution, at least on the far-left. And the west took it seriously with its backing of the right wing death squads and general interference.

I don't really follow Latin American politics, but it seemed to be a source of radical left hopes on and off for a time during the last 20 years. What happened?

Milton Friedman economics. Political corruption. Poverty.

 

[RD2003]

You've forgotten the 1960s and the alliance for progress

As I said, I know little about Latin American politics apart from memories of the interest that was generated by revolutionary movements in the 1980s. Since then we've seen the end of the Cold War, with the west seizing the opportunity to pose as the friend of 'progress, freedom and democracy,' and also the resurgence of those who once backed the slaughter of trade unionists and leftists in the guise of electoral populism. But as in Ecuador and Mexico, to name only two examples, societal breakdown always seems not too far away.

 

[RD2003]

Milton Friedman economics. Political corruption. Poverty.

Political corruption and the poverty resulting from neo-liberal economics would once have been seen as an opportunity for the radical left. In many places it evidently still is, but now a section of those responsible for it can redesign themselves, through a broad populist appeal that surely takes in many former radical left sympathisers, as the answer (and not only in Latin America.) The focus on electoral politics by the LA left also seems to have left it open to corrupt influences.

 

[Pickman's model]

As I said, I know little about Latin American politics apart from memories of the interest that was generated by revolutionary movements in the 1980s. Since then we've seen the end of the Cold War, with the west seizing the opportunity to pose as the friend of 'progress, freedom and democracy,' and also the resurgence of those who once backed the slaughter of trade unionists and leftists in the guise of electoral populism. But as in Ecuador and Mexico, to name only two examples, societal breakdown always seems not too far away.

Thought you might have heard of che Guevara and bolivia

 

[planetgeli]

You cannot talk about this story without talking about drugs, and you should not talk about drugs without talking about the effects of prohibition. It bears little to no relation to 'Latin America's' past involvement with revolutionary politics and right-wing death squads.

Los Choneros are directly related to the Sinaloa cartel, moving cocaine for them through South America. The government's response to this was to lock people up, thus causing the crisis in Ecuador's prisons that has been going on over a decade.

The answer is not to pursue prohibition where obscene and dangerous profits can be made. Those obscene and dangerous profits, as with Mexico, are used to buy arms and buy people. Remove those profits and you remove the major part of this problem. If the 'Left' wants to be serious about rooting out corruption and halting narco-states, it needs to get behind the destruction of prohibition.

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

prosecutor investigating the attack shot
all going mexican style in the violence stakes there :'(

 

[yield]

Good short piece

Ecuador’s Internal Armed Conflict
LRB. 3 February 2024

The cocaine trade, coupled with the corrupt deregulation and dismantling of the state after Rafael Correa’s second term ended in 2017, has put Ecuador on similar a path to Mexico and Colombia (not to mention Honduras and Guatemala). All levels of the state, including the police and armed forces, have been penetrated by organised crime.

 

[souljacker]

Good short piece

Ecuador’s Internal Armed Conflict
LRB. 3 February 2024

Ecuador may for now seem an extreme case in the hemisphere (along with Mexico and Colombia), but Argentina could follow a similar course in the coming years, and Brazil may not be far behind.

Good article but this is a bold statement at the end. Neither Brazil nor Argentina has the same level of narco naughtiness as Colombia or Mexico. Surely that's the major factor here.

 

[yield]

Good article but this is a bold statement at the end. Neither Brazil nor Argentina has the same level of narco naughtiness as Colombia or Mexico. Surely that's the major factor here.

With Argentina, a lot depends on whether Javier Milei gets his way

 

[souljacker]

With Argentina, a lot depends on whether Javier Milei gets his way

He's not likely to cause a full meltdown into narco state status though is he? Argentina doesn't have the close US border either so none of the cartels are interested in it.

 

[yield]

He's not likely to cause a full meltdown into narco state status though is he? Argentina doesn't have the close US border either so none of the cartels are interested in it.

Not straight away, for sure. As it says in the article, Ecuador used to be relatively peaceful. And Ecuador is a long way from the US border.

but Argentina could follow a similar course in the coming years, and Brazil may not be far behind.

If Javier Milei follows his plan to the hollow out the state.

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

Not straight away, for sure. As it says in the article, Ecuador used to be relatively peaceful. And Ecuador is a long way from the US border.

If Javier Milei follows his plan to the hollow out the state.

coca is grown in both ecuador and argentina northern regions though so premium producing areas both and as such target for gang related influence wars

 

[bellaozzydog]

Aggressive American foreign policy

 

[bcuster]

Ecuador's youngest mayor shot dead: Brigitte Garcia was member of ex-president Rafael Correa's Citizen Revolution Movement party

Ms Garcia - a member of former president Rafael Correa's left-wing Citizen Revolution Movement party - is the latest political figure assassinated in Ecuador.

news.sky.com