Men suspected of belonging to a criminal gang being detained during a joint operation between the Ecuadorean National Police and members of the Armed Forces to prevent violent acts, in Guayaquil, Ecuador. — AFP
AT Guayaquil, Ecuador’s biggest port and export hub, drug gangs and the coast guard play a cat-and-mouse game, vying for supremacy of the river among the many hidden inlets and tangles of mangrove.
The Guayas Estuary, with its 28 ports, is the heart of the violence-torn country’s economy.
