Ecuador Was a Retirement Paradise for Americans. Then the Drug Gangs Arrived.

MANTA, Ecuador—Bobbi de Winter had found her retirement paradise on this country’s coast, where tiny red crabs scuttle across pristine beaches, giant sea turtles lay their eggs and whales breach the warm Pacific waters.

 De Winter and her husband, Andre, had recently finished building a house overlooking the Pacific, accessible by crossing a lush forest. They set up hammocks, planted banana and papaya trees, and hosted dinner parties as the sun set over the ocean. 

 “It is just magical,” De Winter, a native of Atlanta, said while walking the beach. “I had never been to such a peaceful place.”

 Then came the drug gangs and horrific violence. Killings marred the once-sleepy district where they live, De Winter said, recalling how her husband once had to swerve his car to avoid a man who’d been shot in the street. A month after the De Winters finished their house, police found millions of dollars in cocaine stashed at a nearby beach, drugs that officers said were to be trafficked north on high-powered boats. A presidential candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, was gunned down in August. 

 Worried about Ecuador’s deteriorating security, the De Winters now intend to sell.

 “I had to let go of my dream,” said De Winter. 

 Ecuadoreans and foreigners alike have had to dramatically alter their way of life as a country that had been known for its natural beauty and relative safety quickly turned into one of the world’s most violent. This year, Ecuador is on track to top 7,000 killings, seven times the number in 2018, government data shows.

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