GW Expert Available: Ecuador in State of Emergency as Security Situation Worsens

“Ecuador’s worsening security situation deteriorated further in spectacular fashion this week, with gunmen armed with explosives storming a TV station during a live broadcast. The country has been rocked by blasts, police kidnappings and prison disturbances in a wave of violence authorities are struggling to contain. The immediate trigger was the prison escape of one of Ecuador’s most powerful drug lords but instability has been growing for years.” (Via CNN)

Cynthia McClintock is a professor of political science and international affairs in Latin American politics at the George Washington University. She is the author of Electoral Rules and Democracy in Latin America, Revolutionary Movements in Latin America: El Salvador’s FMLN and Peru’s Shining Path, and Peasant Cooperatives and Political Change in Peru. Her expertise includes Latin America politics and U.S. policy towards Latin America. McClintock can discuss this prison break and the surge in organized crime in Ecuador.