SAN MATEO, Ecuador (AP) — Oswaldo Angulo is a born fisherman, like generations before him. The oldest of his brothers, he dropped out of high school in Ecuador to learn the trade with his father. When he isn’t at sea for weeks at a time, Oswaldo, 36, lives with his parents.
He can’t imagine it any other way. Marlon, the baby brother, also lived for the sea – he’s a natural navigator. But he fell into , as many Ecuadorian fishermen had before him.
The U.S. Coast Guard stopped Marlon’s speedboat, carrying 1 ton of cocaine, in 2018.
Now 30, he’s serving an 11-year sentence. Anthony, 32, the middle son, wasn’t drawn to the sea the way his brothers were. Instead, he earned a college degree in communications.
But like many in South American country, he was that hit like a hurricane over the past five-plus years. On Dec. 27, 2023, he fled his hometown of San Mateo for the U.
S. In this fishing village on the coast of Ecuador, the Angulo family personifies some of the forces driving migration to the U.S.
Gangs have unleashed violence and extortion in every corner of this nation of 18 million people, upending lives and spurring an unprecedented exodus. Entire communities and industries have been consumed by it, and families torn apart. Many say they’ve been forced to flee to escape the lawlessness.
The threat of organized crime generally doesn’t qualify people in the U.S., but that hasn’t prevented Ecuadorians from leaving, making them the fourth-largest nationali.
