Hybrid Actions Against Ecuador: Transnational Organized Crime, Cybercrime, and Informal Mining, 2020–2022

Abstract

This study analyzes hybrid actions affecting Ecuador between 2020 and 2022, focusing on transnational organized crime (TOC), cybercrime, and informal mining. Using a descriptive and exploratory approach, it triangulates qualitative evidence from case studies, interviews, official documents, and press analysis. The findings show that these dynamics erode state capacities by operating through transnational networks, border spaces, and underground economies. TOC exploits limited state presence and connects illicit markets; cybercrime challenges jurisdiction and threatens critical infrastructure; and informal mining links formal and informal actors across gold production and commercialization chains. The study argues that Ecuador is not experiencing hybrid warfare, but rather multiple hybrid actions that challenge sovereignty, territorial control, and the state’s regulatory capacity. These threats are interconnected and require coordinated responses combining financial intelligence, cybersecurity, international cooperation, territorial control, and gradual formalization.