The government of Ecuador announced this Friday that it extended to a third province the state of emergency decreed on Tuesday to face the onslaught of drug traffickers, which leaves at least eight dead in twenty bullet and explosive attacks.
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Guayas, Esmeraldas and now Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas (west) were left under the state of exception that authorizes the government to mobilize the military and restrict rights for 45 days.
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President Guillermo Lasso “decreed to extend” the measure this Friday to reinforce “intervention actions and guarantee citizen security,” the Communications Secretariat reported in a press release.
Between the three provinces there are about six million of the 18 million inhabitants that Ecuador has.
Lasso activated the emergency on Tuesday, following an unprecedented offensive launched by drug gangs in retaliation for the transfer of prisoners in Guayaquil and Esmeraldas (capital of the same name), mainly.
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Since then there have been about twenty bullet attacks, explosives and car bombs against police stations, gas stations and a hospital, as well as a riot of prisoners that was shot by the public force that entered the Guayas 1 prison in Guayaquil.
The balance is eight dead and 23 woundedmost police and military.
In Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, an eight-hour night curfew will also prevail, starting at 9:00 p.m. local time (02:00 GMT).
The government “will undertake all the necessary decisions to safeguard peace in the country and will fight head-on against terrorism and organized crime,” said the Communications Secretariat.
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In his decree, Lasso considered that the measures dictated “are being effective for the restoration of order and to prevent the occurrence of new attacks” in the provinces of Guayas (whose capital is Guayaquil) and Esmeraldas.
He added that in the last hours also there have been attacks, particularly against gas stationsin Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, a strategic connection between the coast and the Andean highlands.
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Due to the violence caused by the struggle for power between drug organizations, the homicide rate in Ecuador, which in 2021 almost doubled to 14 per 100,000 inhabitants, grew to 18 between January and October 2022.
Bloody clashes between prisoners became some of the largest prison massacres in Latin America and have left some 400 dead since February 2021.
AFP
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