Circle the area on this map
B. Ecuador has 52 murders for every 100,000 inhabitants. The homicide rate has quintupled since 2020, as drug gangs from Mexico, Colombia, and elsewhere fight to control ports of once peaceful Ecuador.
A. In 2023, Colombia grew 67% of the world’s coca, which is turned into cocaine, Peru and Bolivia produce the rest. Ilegal cocaine is hidden in legitimate cargos leaving Ecuador for North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Ecuador said it was imposing tariffs because Colombia was not doing enough to stop drugs flowing across their border.
C. In 2024, a U.S.court sentenced Juan Orlando Hernández to 45 years in prison after he was convicted of conspiring with Colombian gangsters to import 400 tons of cocaine into the United States while he was president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022. President Donald Trump pardoned Hernández last year, a few days before his party narrowly won an election in Honduras.
D. From 1819 to 1831, Gran Colombia included what is now Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama, as well as small parts of what is now Brazil and Peru. The republics of Ecuador, Venezuela, and Colombia emerged from the breakup of Gran Colombia. With U.S. support, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903 to allow the building of the Panama Canal.