Worries that organised crime is tightening its grip

The Andean laundry

IT WAS long an island of tranquillity surrounded by countries racked by guerrillas and drug trafficking. But whereas violence has declined in Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has acquired a reputation as a new capital of financial crime. Last month the Financial Action Task Force, an inter-governmental body, declared that Ecuador has not shown “a clear high-level political commitment” to address its “strategic deficiencies” in fighting money laundering and the financing of terrorism. That put it on a list with the likes of North Korea, Iran and Turkmenistan.

Others have reached similar conclusions. Francisco Huerta, an experienced politician who led a government-commissioned investigation into a Colombian raid on a FARC guerrilla camp just inside Ecuador in 2008, said that the country risks becoming a “narco-democracy”. Tourists, residents and club owners complain of rampant crime in La Mariscal, Quito’s nightlife district where some bouncers are now Russian and many of the customers African and South Asian. Ecuador has become particularly attractive for money launderers because of its combination of weak laws and use of the American dollar as its currency. An American think-tank, the International Assessment and Strategy Centre, reckons that it has become a hub for Russian and Chinese crime syndicates...more

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