Ecuador was calm and peaceful. Now hitmen, kidnappers and robbers walk the streets

Ecuador used to be one of Latin America's most peaceful nations. Today, criminals prowl relatively wealthy and working-class neighborhoods alike. There are professional hitmen, kidnappers, extortionists and thousands of thieves and robbers. Mexican and Colombian cartels have settled into coastal cities and grabbed chunks of the trade shipping hundreds of millions of dollars in cocaine from neighboring Peru and Colombia to consumers overseas. One of the candidates in a special Aug. 20 presidential election had a famously tough stance on organized crime and corruption. Fernando Villavicencio was fatally shot in broad daylight Wednesday despite a security detail that included police and bodyguards.

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