Many reporters in Ecuador have resorted to wearing bulletproof vests and helmets to protect themselves from the risk of covering stories, amid an uptick in gang violence and deadly prison clashes.

Violent criminals are behind the growing insecurity that began plaguing the small country roughly three years ago.

Wedged between Colombia and Peru, Ecuador’s location makes it a prime route for drug traffickers, who vie for dominance on the streets and terrorize residents.

Police have seized close to 50 tonnes of drugs so far this year at Ecuador’s two principal ports.

Nearly every day someone is executed or assassinated in the port city of Guayaquil, which has a population of 3.2 million.

The recent killing of six inmates at the Litoral Penitentiary who were all accused in the August assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio resulted in a reordering of the country’s security forces by President Guillermo Lasso.

Ecuador will be heading to the polls on Sunday, October 15, to elect a new president.  The new president will inherit the task of combating the unprecedented surge in Ecuador’s crime.

The two remaining candidates, Luisa Gonzalez and Daniel Noboa, have both promised to militarize ports and airports to combat the drug trafficking.  Gonzalez and Noboa both are traveling with reinforced security ahead of Sunday’s vote, as do the journalists following their campaign trails.

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