Once considered one of South America's safest countries, Ecuador recorded 1,300 murders in the first fifty days of 2025 as cartel violence overtakes daily life. DW Documentary follows the families fighting to keep that violence from becoming permanent. Amanda and Tamia Villavicencio, daughters of journalist and former presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio Valencia, continue his anti-corruption campaign after his assassination in broad daylight in 2023. The film also traces the case of four children, aged 11 to 15, abducted by men in military uniforms in December 2024 and later found dead near a military facility, using surveillance footage that captured their final moments. Rapper and performance artist Paul Moposita responds by writing a song for the murdered youths and staging a demonstration with victims' families at the site of the abduction. Interviews with grieving relatives and activists sit alongside street footage of protests and mourning, building a picture of a country watching its democracy erode ahead of the April 2025 presidential runoff.