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Ecuador cracks down on 'coyotes'
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Feb 04, 2007 12:53pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Los Angeles Times |
| News Date | Sunday, February 4, 2007 06:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | A shipwreck that killed 98 emigrants leads to calls for a harder line on human smugglers.
By Chris Kraul, Times Staff Writer
February 4, 2007
CUENCA, ECUADOR — When the huge wave crashed down on the battered and weathered vessel in rough seas 100 miles off the coast of Colombia, more than an aging fishing boat was lost. Ninety-eight emigrants who were trapped below decks drowned, leaving behind 170 orphans and hundreds of other grieving relatives.
The shipwreck in August 2005 left this Andean town reeling. The passengers, most of whom came from Cuenca and its environs in southern Ecuador, had paid $8,000 to $10,000 to "coyotes" to arrange the five-day, 1,000-mile voyage from Ecuador's coast to Guatemala, and on to what they hoped would be better lives in the United States.
It's a popular dream here: As many as 2 million Ecuadoreans, or 15% of the population, have emigrated to the United States in the last 50 years, half of them since a devastating financial crisis in 1999, their routes greased by coyotes and their extensive criminal networks.
In this case, the dream became an unspeakable nightmare. Only nine passengers survived, clinging to floating fuel canisters and buoys until a Colombian navy vessel happened by two days later and picked them up. |
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