A narco revolt takes a once-peaceful nation to the brink
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador — The investigation was called “Metastasis,” a sweeping probe into links between parts of Ecuador’s political and legal establishment and the country’s ruthless drug gangs. On Dec. 14, Ecuador’s attorney general announced the arrests of 30 people, including senior judges, prosecutors, police officials, prison officers and prominent defense lawyers. All of them, she said, were part of an organized criminal scheme to benefit one of the country’s top drug traffickers.
“Fellow citizens, the Metastasis case is a clear X-ray of how drug trafficking has taken over the institutions of the state,” Diana Salazar Méndez, the country’s top law enforcement official, said in a video address from her fortress headquarters.
She warned that it was only a matter of time before the gangs struck back.
That response came on Jan. 9, and Ecuador, a country of 18 million people, seemed for several hours to be on the verge of collapse.
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