The sweat-and-salsa-infused nightlife that was once the beating heart of Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil, has fallen silent, with bars, restaurants, and nightclubs pulling down the shutters to avoid cartel-linked violence.

As Ecuador has become an epicenter of the global cocaine trade -- and the port city of Guayaquil a major thoroughfare -- cartels and mafias have chewed through the city's lively 'Zonas Rosas' -- nightlife hotspots.

Valeria Buendia, a 36-year-old teacher, used to hit Panama Street about once a week with friends.

A once buzzing and steamy area not far from the river, it is now empty after dark.

She rattles off the names of old haunts -- Central, Exflogia, Nicanor -- but now, she said, "it's become dangerous."

"I'm afraid of stray bullets," she said.

With over 5,200

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