ANDhe president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, completed six months in office this Thursday, a period in which he has established himself as one of the most popular leaders in Latin America with its declared “war” on organized crime and in which it has taken unprecedented decisions such as the invasion of the Mexican Embassy.
An Ecuadorian citizen checks an electricity meter in Quito.
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At the beginning of the year he even challenged the Salvadoran Nayib Bukele for the position of the most popular president in Latin America, when his approval exceeded 80%, coinciding with the declaration of the existence of an “internal armed conflict” in Ecuador against criminal gangs, which he began to classify as terrorist groups.
The fight against criminal groups became their greatest political capital
The fight against criminal groups became their greatest political capital, as reflected in the referendum what he had promised to do when assuming the Presidencyto put its most emblematic reforms to the vote of the population.
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(Also: The International Court of Justice rejects Mexico’s request to issue precautionary measures against Ecuador)
The energy crisis worsened just before a key referendum for Daniel Noboa’s government.
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One of the most important measures of that plebiscite was the authorization for the Armed Forces participate alongside the Police in operations against organized crime, without the need to issue states of exception.
A member of the Army searches a man, in the south of Quito.
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Militarization of prisons
This violence also took to the streets to make Ecuador one of the countries with the most homicides in Latin America, with a rate of 47 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023.
​Although homicides have decreased by around 27% since the “internal armed conflict” was declared, massacres and murders by criminal gangs still occur
Added to this are the complaints of human rights violations committed by the military in this contextespecially inside prisons, where cases of alleged extrajudicial executions and torture stand out.
In this regard, the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) sent a letter to Noboa this Wednesday to warn that his decision to elevate the fight against organized crime to the category of “international armed conflict” lacks support and has contributed to “serious violations.” of human rights” by the Police and the Armed Forces.
Security forces during an operation at the Regional 8 prison complex in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
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Open fronts with Mexico and vice president
In international relations, Noboa backed down on the decision to deliver Soviet military weapons to the United States for use in Ukraine, when Russia was hindering the access of Ecuadorian bananas to its territory, but he did not waver in his decision to invade the Mexican Embassy in Quito to arrest Jorge Glas, former vice president of Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
Thus began the great external crisis of his mandate, when Mexico broke relations with Ecuador and both countries sued each other in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for considering that they had violated international norms and conventions.
Former president of Ecuador Jorge Glas.
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