In January alone, Ecuador saw at least 391 violent deaths. Last year was the most violent in the country’s modern history, registering 7,872 murders — 43.2 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. That marks a notable increase over 2020, when the figure was just 7.8 per 100,000 inhabitants. To address the spike in crime, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has taken drastic action: He signed executive decrees laying the groundwork for a nationwide referendum, designed to beef up government security powers and amend the constitution. This episode has been researched by our friend and podcast editor James! Check out his channel here https://youtube.com/@DrivenMental?si=-vuxq0l_Bi6L-FYS sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/why-has-ecuador-become-so-violent-2023-08-10/ https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/ecuador https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Ecuador https://theconversation.com/how-ecuador-went-from-being-latin-americas-model-of-stability-to-a-nation-in-crisis-220911 https://dronedj.com/2021/09/14/drones-drop-explosives-in-ecuador-prison-attack-by-suspected-drug-cartels/#:~:text=Officials%20say%20the%20attack%20took%20place%20early%20Monday%2C,next%20to%20the%20main%20prison%20holding%20most%20inmates. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/businessman-noboa-wins-ecuador-presidency-eclipsing-fathers-legacy-2023-10-16/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Noboa https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ecuador-president-declares-state-of-emergency-over-energy-crisis/ar-AA1nkKLp?ocid=BingNewsSerp https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/8/mexico-to-iran-why-are-attacks-on-embassies-so-controversial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange# Travel to Germany with me https://trovatrip.com/trip/europe/germany-and-austria/germany-with-steven-bell-nov-2024 Travel to Peru with me https://trovatrip.com/trip/south-america/peru/peru-with-steven-bell-jul-2024 Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/stakuyi Subscribe to my channels and let me know what more you would like to see. We organize games through discord: https://discord.gg/BJsRA6UpXx Twitch https://twitch.tv/stakuyi Podcast: https://historyofeverythingpodcast.com/