STORY: An explosion of violent crime and homicides has gripped Ecuador in recent years, fueled by a sharp increase in smuggled guns.
The South American nation recorded nearly 8,000 murders last year, roughly six times the number in 2020.
The surge of violence has sparked a crackdown on black-market weapons, and Reuters was given a rare look at Ecuador's bullet-tracing efforts, a key component of its fight against crime.
Major Efrain Arguello, who heads a national forensic investigations unit, tells Reuters that it has been slow work, as only 900 guns have been traced out of the more than 40,000 seized since 2019.
He said tracing the origins of bullets and guns could help authorities choke off gun trafficking routes.
But two senior police officials told Reuters that Ecuador is struggling to do so because of a lack of funding, forensic equipment and trained personnel.
In Quito's police forensic building, a technician peered through the only ballistic microscope in the city, analyzing shell casings and bullets from five guns used to kill four people.
Police told Reuters that Ecuador has just eight microscopes for bullet tracing in a country of 17 million.
Police seized nearly 10,000 guns across Ecuador last year, according to police data, more than half of them revolvers or pistols, close to double the number of seizures in 2019.
Police said at least a quarter of the guns traced were legally acquired in the United States, but they generally have no record of legal entry to Ecuador.
