New CNN documentary gives a rare, behind-the-scenes look into Ecuador's deadly drug war

CNN

4 days ago

He says he was 18 years old when he first joined a gang in Ecuador a decade ago. Now a senior commander with a wife and kids, the man almost casually acknowledges he's contributing to the deadly drug trade plaguing the country.
'Yes, I'm part of the problem,' he tells CNN's David Culver, agreeing to talk, but only after dark, away from crowds and with his face disguised.
'They gave me everything,' he says of the gang, insisting he joined them out of desperation. Ten years on, he says he won't quit 'because it's a huge economy and no one wants to let go of good business.'
Securing conversations like this one meant moving with a compact, tightly coordinated crew, which included CNN producer Abel Alvarado, supervising investigative producer Barbara Arvanitidis, photojournalist Alex Platt and security coordinator Crendon Greenway. Together they navigated gang territory, military raids and remote stretches of ocean to capture the story in a new documentary.
In Esmeraldas, a coastal province where cocaine is often imported from Colombia, they spoke to authorities and residents about how the violence has upended daily life. In Los Rios, a region that produces much of Ecuador's banana exports, they visited a plantation to learn how drug traffickers often slip cocaine into the fruit containers after they leave the farm. In the coastal city of Manta, they boarded a military boat to see how authorities are working to stop smugglers at sea before they reach the US and other countries. And in the Galápagos Islands, they saw an ecotourism hotspot that's quietly become a 'gas station' for drug boats.
The documentary, executive produced by Susan Chun, gives a rare look at how Ecuador became a narco superhighway. It airs Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on CNN's 'The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper.'
Below, Culver and Alvarado, a native of Ecuador, discuss their reporting. Their answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Culver: We've been covering Ecuador together starting with this surge of violence in early 2024, and that was my first trip, actually, to Ecuador. And I think it kind of caught me off guard in that moment to see what seemed like such a normal and relatable society – something that those of us in the US could kind of just see ourselves in – in the midst of just total chaos and upheaval.
How does a country go from being such a paradise, an island of peace, to chaos? And from the outside, it seemed like it all happened in one day. But then, as you begin to pull the threads … you start to realize there's so much more that goes into it.
Alvarado: I've been going to Ecuador more for stories than to visit my family lately. And these stories have kept getting bigger and bigger in the past few years. I remember the first story I covered for CNN there, it was protests. It was very internal. A certain group, a sector of the country was angry at the government. But then when the crime starts, we start noticing things that never used to happen there.
A presidential candidate was murdered a couple of years ago. That was so unheard of. And I was there for that. Then a couple months later, in January 2024, we had a main criminal leader, gang leader, escape from prison. The next day, we saw gangs retaliating against the president because he declared a state of emergency … Just seeing how this country where I was raised – this beautiful place, very peaceful – and to see it spiral this way has been very hard in my case. And for this documentary, our goal was to capture this situation, and follow the chain of what is happening in this country.
Culver: I think when we think of the Galapagos … it's obviously tied with finches and evolution and (Charles) Darwin, but we're starting to see an evolution of a different sort take place.
It almost became symbolic, in a very dark way, of what's happening with the people of Ecuador. And one of the things that we intentionally did is try to simplify and humanize the story. And we open up the documentary with a couple in their home, and they clearly have never been exposed to media, let alone international media before. And here they are in a very vulnerable moment, in a very fearful moment, but also a very desperate one, trying to explain their son's disappearance, and the documentary then flows out from there.
Alvarado: Ecuador has always had this sense – the military especially – sense of pride, of 'We've got this, we train our soldiers.' It's always been like that. But they were very honest about their needs … And it comes with this new reality that the country is going through.
One General (Kleber Guaytarilla, commander of Manabi's Joint Task Force) was very, very open, like, 'We need all the help we can get.' They wanted to show us around some of the equipment they use. And when we got there, they're like, 'Oh, actually, it's not working.' We're seeing the lack of working equipment, the lack of resources that they have.
Alvarado: I think it started from even when we were planning. It's a small country … but still, it's not easy to get from point A to point B. And there's always this risk factor for us … And then coordinating and setting up to be able to speak, to match our times with the authorities during a raid, to also be able to have these gang leaders, drug runners open up to us, which I think that's also surprising.
We asked ourselves: 'Why would they talk? Why would they risk their security? They're not afraid of the police. They're afraid of other gang members snitching. Why would they do that?'
And then the gang member kind of revealed to us, because he wants to explain how the situation in the country leads all these young people to that world … David asked him, 'Why did you get into this?' He says, 'Because they gave me shoes.'
Culver: I think when we went into Choneros (gang) territory, that was probably the most uncertain. And to show you how quickly things would move, we would be in the midst of meetings, and this happened at least twice, where we would be speaking with high-level officials, usually with the Navy or the Army, and suddenly we get pulled aside because there'd be a briefing that came in that suggested Intel knew where a suspect was, and then we would mobilize quickly to go there.
Alvarado: I was sometimes nervous, even in those quiet moments in certain areas. Cameras, foreigners can catch the attention of locals. And those moments that were quiet, I was kind of like on the lookout. I know that in Guayaquil and in many parts of Latin America, hit men usually operate on motorcycles because it's easy to escape. So, they just get in, and they're like zigzagging through the cars. So, there were moments where I was driving and I would see on the rear view all these motorcycles, just these young men on them, and you just don't trust, you don't know.
And that's something I feel when I go back. There's this tension in the air every time I arrive to my country, sadly. And it's just because you feel like you can't trust anyone.
Culver: You don't leave a lot of space for idle time there. And that's kind of intentional, even. The fact that – I was learning this from Abel – some of his family members even change up their routines so as to not be too predictable in their everyday life, which I just was struck by.
Culver: Much like the US, it depends who you talk to in those circumstances. I mean, the parents of the young man who has disappeared, you can tell that they are impoverished, that they really have few resources. They're trying to raise their other four children. The dad's a security guard, the mom trying to keep the home up. It's incredibly modest. And so, I think there are real struggles of just providing for a family in those types of circumstances.
But then you have a middle class, and we saw that in Esmeraldas, where you do have people who go out to restaurants on a Friday night, and want to enjoy the music, and the warm weather, and they try to make life normal, even as military soldiers are parading down in a convoy. And they just seem to have accepted, OK, this is what it's like to live in a war zone, but you're still going to try to live within that war zone, right? You're still going to try to find joy in moments of relaxation.
Alvarado: Joaquin, who's a childhood friend of mine, we spoke to in this documentary. We wanted to also include that – what is it like for people who live here? Joaquin is a person who has the resources to live in the US. He works for a company that's based in the US. He makes good money. He could be here, but he because of family, parents, siblings, he chooses to be there.
Culver: You begin to realize that the interconnectedness of this crisis is immense, and it's why we're now seeing the US increasingly back involved with what's happening there. And I say back involved because obviously there was a base there up until 2009 with a US military presence.
I think our intention is to kind of put this on a map in a broader way, because no doubt we will be hearing sooner than later that the US is getting more and more and more involved. As a viewer, you're going to begin understanding why that is in part because of this narco superhighway that involves drugs, but also how this is likely to end if Ecuador doesn't get the help that they're pleading for.
Alvarado: It's putting this small country on the map and to make people understand what life is like there. And Ecuador's internal problem is also fueled by drug consumption in the US, in Europe, in many other places.
I'm happy if people learn about the situation there, (and) understand: Oh, wow. It's not just Ecuador. This also involves other countries. But aside from that, I'm also happy for people to learn of its potential. And after – hopefully – after all this violence and drug trafficking, to realize that Ecuador is the Amazon, the Andes, the Galapagos, the Pacific coast – there's more to it.