Short history of the migratory waves in the XX - XXI century to and from Ecuador

Immigration to Ecuador occurs in various periods of the history of the 20th and 21st centuries, and the original causes were above all the wars in Europe, the Middle East, and the war against communism, or Cold War, as well as the War on Drug Trafficking, that is lived in Latin America, since the post-world war, that is, since 1945.

Another of the migratory factors has been the transport and communications revolution, which occurred with combustion vehicles, paved roads, air transport, airports, and telephony, which is now experiencing its greatest development with mobile telephony, the cinema, radio, television, and the Internet, which changed the way of knowing and learning, but above all created consumption and experience needs, which made our poor countries, or less developed countries, look like hell on earth.

The Panama Canal, which changed world navigation between the Pacific and the Atlantic, brought a great migratory wave of merchants, exporters, and bankers to Guayaquil, making Ecuador the world's leading exporter of bananas.

In the 1960s, the Vietnam War produced a migratory wave of indigenous people from Cañar and Chimorazo to the United States as day laborers.

Oil from the Ecuadorian Amazon produced a migratory wave of Ecuadorians and foreigners to the northern provinces of Ecuador, oil revenues changed the road, health, and educational infrastructure of the country, with new urban and production areas, which created internal migration, and migration mainly of Colombians and Peruvians, like the one that lived in the current province of Santo Domingo.

The War of the Thousand Days in Colombia, was the origin of the first great wave of Colombian emigrants to Ecuador, the oil boom in Venezuela, originated the great migratory wave of Ecuadorians to Venezuela, the great bank failure of 1999, its Bank Holiday, originated the largest migratory wave of Ecuadorians abroad, in which for the first time women became massive emigrants, today Ecuador is experiencing the worst economic and social crisis in the South American Pacific countries, mainly due to the Covid 19 pandemic and the War on Drug trafficking, which has created a new migratory wave of Ecuadorians to the United States and Europe, but now not only adults emigrate, but also children and entire families.

The political repression in the Southern Cone of the Continent, in the CONDOR PLAN,

brought many Chileans and Argentines to Ecuador, and the economic crisis in Cuba, or the earthquake in Haiti, turned Ecuador into a springboard for Cubans and Haitians who want to enter the United States. In the Correa Period 2006 - 2016, doctors, and migrants who wanted to escape from their countries, such as Cuba or Venezuela, but at the same time Ecuador became the refuge of Ecuadorians who had emigrated, but were unhappy in the United States or Europe. .At this time, the Covid 19 pandemic, which forced countries to quarantine for more than two years, has fractured coexistence through social distancing, which has changed the way we relate, learn, and heal, which was previously founded In an interpersonal relationship, of direct contact between neighbors, visitors, tourists, students and teachers, patients and doctors, producers and consumers, sellers and buyers, authorities and citizens, including, between criminals and their victims, today there is a relationship mediated by the Internet, where impersonal communication rejects the oral word, friendly or abrupt gestures, hugs, flowers or gifts, handshakes, reading gazes, gestures, words, grimaces, gestures, postures, appearance, rejects the spontaneous fluidity of emotions, where losing or stealing a cell phone became the main booty for thugs, the cell phone is now the owner of the glances, attention, people's lives and coexistence.

This fracture of family life has created waves of migration, which until the 2000s turned Ecuador into a refuge for families of the guerrillas and the poor in Colombia, and since 2014, when Venezuela has lived through the blockade and war against the United States or its governments. allies in Latin America, Ecuador is a country of refuge for Venezuelans.T

These days Ecuador has become the first exporter of narcotics from the Pacific of South America, it is experiencing a bloody low-intensity civil war, called the War on Drugs, it is also an exporter of emigrants, not only Ecuadorians but from other countries, use Ecuador as a springboard, especially to enter the United States.

But in Ecuador, unlike what happens in other countries of the world, immigrants achieve coexistence with the inhabitants of the country, they can travel almost freely, they are not confined in concentration camps, where they are fenced, watched, and although the shelters for refugees or migrants receive food, medical care, and temporary housing, their free movement is prevented in countries such as Europe, the United States, Australia, and even in some Asian countries.

La Mariscal de Quito is the model of a neighborhood of intercultural coexistence, of all ethnic groups, cultures, religions, races, genders, ages, and nationalities of the world and even of Ecuador. Here, migrants can transit, work, set up businesses, create companies, educate their children, receive medical attention, and have police protection when the police and authorities or cartels and traffickers do not intimidate, exploit, or harass them.

That is why in this neighborhood, the Chinese with their restaurants and stores, the Asians from the Middle East have restaurants, the Europeans and North Americans have hotels, bars, and tourism agencies, the Venezuelans a Boulevard de la Música where old teachers and young people artists collect coins every day, workers, professionals, experts from Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, offer their work, without excluding each other.

But the pandemic, the quarantine, the social distancing, and the closure of the airports, the bus stations, and the highways for two years, affected La Mariscal, the neighborhood with the largest infrastructure and tourist services in the country, where they are even the largest international hotel chains, such as Mariot, Hilton, Swiss Hotel, Radisson, Mercure, etc., services, such as McDonald, Burger King, and airline agencies, in short.

Since the year 2000, La Mariscal collapsed, and has quickly evolved from a tourist neighborhood to a student mud, since in the neighborhood and its vicinity there are 12 universities, 8 higher institutes, 10 academic leveling centers, 6 large schools, 8 schools, has a daily presence of more than 250,000 students, who on weekends are the ones who now give life, go to bars, restaurants, buy in shops, occupy the rooms or apartments that now welcome them.

During the 90s, La Mariscal attracted backpackers, who were poor travelers from developed countries, who gave it vitality and great movement, but at the same time converted the neighborhood, like Atacames, Montañita, Vilcabamba, or Misagualli, or Santa Cruz in the Galapagos, in drug tourism poles, in the main centers for buying and selling drugs, especially cocaine, which in their countries was extremely expensive, but here very cheap.

Cocaine became the most demanded drug because in foreigners it stimulated their sexual performance, and altered the perception of orgasm, which is why it is now very popular all over the world.

Today, La Mariscal is the main center for buying and selling drugs in the Capital, and students have become the main drug users, micro-traffickers, and even hitmen, especially on the Coast. This has turned Mariscal into a red zone with violence, which is still not as deadly as in the southern neighborhoods of the capital, where the largest migrant population is, or the coastal ports where cocaine money is in everywhere, and because of it they kill each other, like when gold in California created the time of the gunmen in the United States, or the dry law originated the American mafia.

Ecuador is experiencing the cocaine export boom, as before the banana boom, which created a wave of vice plus violence between the 50s and 80s, in the oil boom since the 70s, which created a wave of vices with violence in Esmeraldas, and Sucumbíos, the shrimp boom in the 1980s and 1990s that created a wave of violence in the mangrove areas of the country, the timber boom in the 1990s that created a wave of violence in Esmeraldas, and the Amazonia, the gold boom since 2010, which created a wave of violence on the slopes of the Andes in the provinces of Azuay, El Oro, Loja, Zamora, Imbabura and Esmeraldas.

The Cocaine Boom has created a low-intensity civil war in Guayaquil, Duran, San Borondón, Manta, and Esmeraldas, in all the ports, since it is naval drug trafficking, through the Pacific, it is the one that produces the most profits, the one that is more successful.