Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa announced on the night of Thursday, March 7, that he is extending for another 30 days the state of emergency, under which the country has been since last January 8. The measure, which lasted for a total of 90 days, was followed by another decree in which the president declared “serious commotion” and “internal armed conflict.” The provisions were ordered amid the escalation of violence that authorities attribute mainly to drug trafficking.
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The state of exception in Ecuador has been renewed. President Daniel Noboa pointed out the need to extend the measure for 30 more days – for a total of at least 90 days – to maintain military patrols in prisons and violent areas of the country, maintain order and reduce homicides.
“The declaration of a state of emergency is maintained throughout Ecuadorian territory to guarantee public order, social peace and peaceful coexistence,” said the Communication Secretariat of the Presidency in a statement, after the president signed the decree to expand the provision.
The state of exception restricts rights such as free mobilitygiven that includes a curfew which runs from midnight to 5:00 in the most dangerous areas, and is reduced in others.
In addition, limits the right of assembly, inviolability of home and correspondence. Regarding the latter, the document specifies that it must be directed “to the legitimate purpose which is the identification, analysis and compilation of messages that have as their objective the concealment of any person deprived of liberty” or the concealment of illicit conduct.
The Constitution allows the president to maintain the state of emergency for up to 90 continuous days.
The background to the extension of the measure
The state of emergency was initially declared by the president on January 8, a month and a half after assuming the Executive of a country under a serious security crisis that even witnessed the murder of Fernando Villavicencio, one of the candidates. presidential elections, in the middle of the campaign, last August.
Two months ago, Noboa declared the measure after the escape of drug trafficker José Adolfo Macías Salazar, alias 'Fito', which was followed by riots in six prisons in the country, and in order to regain control of the detention centers, lost in recent years. The whereabouts of the man who had been sentenced to 34 years in prison for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder are still unknown.
But far from mitigating the criminal gangs, the declaration of the state of emergency raised the anger of the criminals who a day later carried out a series of violent events. Among them, the armed invasion of a television channel during a live broadcast, whose images, in which they threaten and point their weapons at the technical and journalistic team, went around the world.
In addition, explosions were recorded in different cities, at least seven police officers were kidnapped and more prisoner escapes were recorded, which led Noboa, on January 9, to declare “internal armed conflict” and declared war on 22 criminal organizations, which he described as terrorists and “military objectives.”
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Since then, police and soldiers, who are part of the so-called security bloc, carry out permanent operations in different cities of the country. With special attention to the port city of Guayaquil, the second in the country and considered one of the most dangerous.
In addition, the authorities carry out operations inside and outside the prisons which, they claim, are the command center of the criminal gangs – linked to the large drug cartels of Mexico and Colombia – and from where they order all types of crimes.
What has Noboa achieved since the first declaration of the state of emergency?
The Government assures that during the state of emergency Intentional homicides have been reduced by half, going from an average of 24 per day to 12 per day.
The Presidency's press office indicated that, between January and last Monday, March 4, security forces carried out nearly 150,000 operations nationwide, arresting more than 11,700 people, including 280 on terrorism charges. Fourteen alleged criminals died during the operations and authorities seized 3,300 weapons and 64.3 tons of drugs.
Former President Guillermo Lasso, whom Noboa succeeded in office, also frequently declared states of exception in an attempt to curb growing violence on the streets and in prisons, which showed little effect.
Faced with the expansion of drug trafficking, Ecuador went from being one of the safest countries in the hemisphere to one of the most dangerous after becoming an important regional center for the storage, processing and distribution of illicit drugs.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
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