17
March 2025
Past Event
Can Ecuador Subdue Organized Crime?

Event will also air live on this page.

 

 

Inquiries: tmagnuson@hudson.org.
 

Can Ecuador Subdue Organized Crime?

Past Event
Hudson Institute
March 17, 2025
Getty Images
Caption
A soldier stands guard outside Canela Radio on January 10, 2024, in Quito, Ecuador. (Photo by Franklin Jacome/Getty Images)
17
March 2025
Past Event

Event will also air live on this page.

 

 

Inquiries: tmagnuson@hudson.org.
 

Speakers:
Mike Fitzpatrick
Amb. Mike Fitzpatrick

Former US Ambassador to Ecuador

John Polga-Hecimovich
John Polga-Hecimovich

Associate Professor, US Naval Academy

Isabel Chiriboga
Isabel Chiriboga

Assistant Director, Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, Atlantic Council

Moderator:
batlle
Daniel Batlle

Adjunct Fellow

Listen to Event Audio

Ecuador, once among the most peaceful countries in Latin America, faces an existential threat from an array of criminal groups. These organizations have committed unprecedented violence, infiltrated political structures, and challenged the government’s authority. Meanwhile, the country is going through an economic contraction and an energy crisis triggered by severe drought.

In a repeat of snap presidential elections held in 2023, Ecuadorians will vote on April 13 in a runoff pitting incumbent Daniel Noboa against Luisa Gonzalez, a protégé of former leftist president Rafael Correa.  

Former United States Ambassador to Ecuador Mike Fitzpatrick, Atlantic Council scholar Isabel Chiriboga, and US Naval Academy Professor John Polga-Hecimovich will join Hudson’s Daniel Batlle to examine Ecuador’s fight against organized crime and how the election results will shape the country’s security strategy.
 

Related Events
03
June 2026
Virtual Event | Hudson Institute
Authoritarian Persistence in Latin America: What Should the US Do?
Featured Speakers:
Elliott Abrams
Daniel Batlle
Getty Images
03
June 2026
Virtual Event | Hudson Institute
Authoritarian Persistence in Latin America: What Should the US Do?

Please join Adjunct Fellow Daniel Batlle for a conversation with Elliott Abrams, whose leadership on Latin America policy stretches from his service as assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs under President Ronald Reagan to his role as special representative for Venezuela in the first Trump administration.

Getty Images
Featured Speakers:
Elliott Abrams
Daniel Batlle
04
June 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Spain’s Latin American Reckoning
Featured Speakers:
Julio Crespo MacLennan
Daniel Batlle
Getty Images
04
June 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Spain’s Latin American Reckoning

Join Hudson as Adjunct Fellow Daniel Batlle sits down with Julio Crespo MacLennan, a historian and one of the leading scholars on Spain’s democratic transition and on Europe’s relationship with the wider world. 

Getty Images
Featured Speakers:
Julio Crespo MacLennan
Daniel Batlle
11
June 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Growing the DIB: A Conversation with Deputy Assistant Secretary of War James Mismash
Featured Speakers:
Nadia Schadlow
James Mismash
Getty Images
11
June 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Growing the DIB: A Conversation with Deputy Assistant Secretary of War James Mismash

Please join Hudson Institute for a fireside chat between Hudson Senior Fellow Nadia Schadlow and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Industrial Base Growth and Director of the Office of Small Business Programs James Mismash. 

Getty Images
Featured Speakers:
Nadia Schadlow
James Mismash
12
June 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Winning the Innovation Competition
Featured Speakers:
Bryan Clark
Dan Patt
Emil Michael
DVIDS
12
June 2026
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Winning the Innovation Competition

Please join Hudson Institute Senior Fellows Bryan Clark and Dan Patt for a conversation with Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael about the Department of War’s efforts to bring AI to the battlefield and implement an innovation strategy that makes the most of America’s commercial and government research sectors. 

DVIDS
Featured Speakers:
Bryan Clark
Dan Patt
Emil Michael