Perpignan – Getty Images special correspondent John Moore travelled to Ecuador in February 2024 to document the country’s response to the gang crisis. The resulting exhibition is on show at the Visa pour l'image Festival in Perpignan, in the south of France.
Sandwiched between Colombia and Peru – the world's top cocaine producers – once-peaceful Ecuador has seen violence explode in recent years as gangs with links to Mexican and Colombian drug cartels vie for control.
As the gangs have gained ground, homicides in Ecuador soared from six per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 to 47 per 100,000 in 2023.
Multi award-winning photojournalist John Moore obtained rare access to military and police raids in Guayaquil and in Esmeraldas province, entering neighborhoods previously controlled by armed gangs.
"When I arrived [in Ecuador], the military and the police had started very serious anti-gang operations, and they were fine with me going along with them because they wanted to show really what kind of progress they were making against the gang violence," Moore told RFI.
The result is a photo series entitled "Internal Armed Conflict" referring to earlier this year when Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa granted extended powers to security forces to battle the powerful gangs.
"The state of emergency really gave the military, in some ways, a free hand to operate, and what they referred to as the Mano Dura," Moore explains.
"It's tough. Many people have accepted that they have to give up some of their personal liberties in order to defeat this violence that's happening in their country," he says.
As a special correspondent for Getty Images, Moore spent 17 years posted overseas, first in Nicaragua, then India, South Africa, Mexico, Egypt and Pakistan.
Since returning to the US in 2008 he has focused on immigration and border issues.
His book "Undocumented: Immigration and the Militarization of the United States-Mexico Border". was published in 2018 by powerHouse Books.
► Visa pour l'Image runs from 31 August to 15 September 2024.
