President Lasso declares a state of emergency and deploys the Army to combat the “serious internal commotion” suffered by the Andean country’s society
A spiral of violence linked to drug trafficking consumes Ecuador in the face of the impotence of the Government of Guillermo Lasso. The president was forced late on Monday – early Tuesday morning in Spain – to declare a state of exception for sixty days due to the “serious internal commotion” that the Andean country is experiencing and by means of a decree he legally shielded the public forces, both police and military, so that they mobilize without limit in their fight against crime.
Although the measure – which is carried out on the eve of the visit of the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken and just when Washington has just included Ecuador on its list of countries with the highest drug trafficking or production – has scope throughout the territory nationally, the largest deployment will occur in provinces where statistics warn of a rebound in crime. These are the cases of El Oro, Guayas, Santa Elena, Manabí, Los Ríos, Esmeraldas, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Pichincha and Sucumbíos –the border with Colombia–. In these areas, freedoms of movement, assembly and association will be limited.
«In the streets there is only one enemy, drug trafficking. The number of assassins or robberies to homes and vehicles is on the increase, ”Lasso declared during the message to the nation that he broadcast on public television. For this reason, the presence of the security forces will be felt “with force” through weapons controls, inspections and patrols 24 hours a day, as detailed by Lasso, who has led the Executive since May. The objective will be “to control the circumstances that have been generated, reestablish peaceful coexistence and public order,” says the president.
Cocaine highway
Ecuador’s ports have become the new cocaine highway. More than a third of the growing exports from Colombia and Peru, the major producers of this drug, part of them to the United States and Europe. Furthermore, according to experts, in the last ten years Ecuador has gone from being a territory of “mere transit” of narcotics to one in which they are stored, processed and distributed.
Seizures between January and October 2021 reached the annual record of 147 tons, against 128 tons in 2020; while the homicides of the ‘narco’ rose to 1,900 – eleven per 100,000 inhabitants – compared to about 1,400 the previous year, according to official figures.
At the same time, this year there have been riots in prisons due to drug violence, especially in Guayaquil. The last one, three weeks ago, ended in macabre massacres between inmates of rival mafia gangs linked to Mexican cartels. About 230 people have been killed.
The opposition criticizes that the state of exception coincides with announcements of mobilizations that have been made by some sectors of society to protest against the cuts decreed by the Lasso government.
.
#Drug #Trafficking #Violence #Consumes #Ecuadorians