QUITO—At the Rumichaca International Bridge, the main artery connecting Ecuador and Colombia, there has been an “unusual, almost disquieting silence,” according to local media. This stillness is the result of a diplomatic rupture that has spiraled into a full-blown trade and energy war between the two countries. Since the last major bilateral crisis in 2008, the underlying tragedy remains the same: a border defined by cocaine, a relationship held hostage by the personal political calculations of presidents, and a region increasingly squeezed by the geopolitical ambitions of the United...Read this article on the Americas Quarterly website. | Subscribe to AQ.