INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES au NEWSLETTER SIGNUP My account Log Out Jul 12, 12:30 PM AEST Business News Sports Technology Entertainment NEWSLETTER My account Log Out Australia edition Business News Sports Technology Entertainment Editions Australia India International Singapore United Kingdom United States NEWSLETTER Follow Us Editions Australia India International Singapore United Kingdom United States 'If You Protest, You Die': Drug Gangs Recruit Ecuador's Fishermen By AFP news Published 07/12/24 AT 12:30 PM AEST Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn Share on Reddit Share on Flipboard Share on Pocket A fisherman looks at a colleague painting a boat on the beach at the Santa Rosa fishing port in Salinas, Ecuador, in June 2024 AFP With its idyllic, hotel-dotted coast, Ecuador's beach town of Salinas is the setting of a brutal war that most tourists never get to see. Here, gangs forcefully enlist fishermen in drug trafficking -- a scourge that has transformed one of the most peaceful countries in Latin America into one of its most violent. "If you protest, you die," a 35-year-old fisherman in the area told AFP of the gangs' recruitment methods, which entail force and fear but also large payments -- though not always everything they are promised.
The fisherman, who declined to give his name for fear of retribution, works at the Santa Rosa pier in the town of 35,000 inhabitants in Ecuador's western Santa Elena province. The atmosphere at the port is silent, tense.