Ecuador, June 26 -- The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $400 million loan to Ecuador to strengthen the country's institutional capacity to prevent and tackle criminal violence and illicit financial flows. This programmatic policy-based loan addresses growing insecurity in a country where the homicide rate has risen from 7 to 39 per 100,000 inhabitants between 2020 and 2024, an increase of over 400%. The program lays out a comprehensive, cross-sector, and evidence-based response that includes new regulatory frameworks, channels for inter-institutional coordination, intervention strategies, and tools for tracing and controlling illicit assets.The "Program for Institutional Strengthening to Prevent and Address Violence and...