SUMMARY

Los Choneros was a prison gang in Ecuador with presence in prisons across the country. The group emerged in the late 1990s in the Pacific city of Manta as a drug trafficking cartel controlling pacific maritime trafficking routes to the United States of America and Mexico. Since the arrest and imprisonment of gang leaders in 2011, the group evolved to become one of Ecuador’s most violent prison gangs. The group was then mostly active in the province of Guayas, where the leadership was jailed in the La Roca Prison of Guayaquil. When gang leaders were transferred across the country in 2019 in an effort to control prison violence, Los Choneros' presence expanded to prisons in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Cotopaxi and Cuenca. As of 2021, the group was also present in Manabí, Los Ríos and Santa Elena and had about 12 000 members.

Los Choneros was founded by Jorge Busmarck Véliz España alias “Teniente España”. Teniente España was killed in a clash in 2007 and his death sparked a series of leadership changes in the following years. Jorge Luis Zambrano, alias Rasquiña, took over the leadership in 2010 until he was assassinated on 28 December 2020. Rasquiña, along with several other gang members, was imprisoned in targeted police operations in 2011. From the beginning the leadership structure was hierarchical, but as the group expanded across the country the chain of command became centralized. Changes in the leadership after Rasquiña’s death has resulted in fighting within the group and in 2021 the group has been targeted by coalitions of smaller gangs. Los Choneros engaged in illicit activities such as micro-trafficking, contract killings, extortion and contra band.

Los Choneros has longstanding relationships with the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico. As of 2021 these three groups have turned on Los Choneros and, have together with Los Pipos, united in a new structure called New Generation.

Los Choneros has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organized violence.