Ecuador is currently experiencing a situation of chaos and violence that has been ongoing since the beginning of the week, when criminal organizations linked to drug trafficking began a series of attacks and rebellions in several cities and prisons across the country.
The situation is the first major public security crisis faced by Ecuador's youngest president, Daniel Noboa, who contested and won a presidential election marked by the assassination of Fernando Villavicencio, and took office as head of state in November 2023. Noboa arrived at the Ecuador's executive under the promise of adopting tougher measures to tackle the problem of violence and organized crime.
During his campaign, the president mentioned the creation of a plan called “Phoenix”, which involved the reform of security policies and military intervention to combat crime in the South American country. In December, the following month after officially assuming the presidency, Noboa's government announced that the Fênix plan was already underway and revealed new points about the security strategy, indicating that its cornerstone would be to regain control of prisons.
The Fênix plan, according to the government, would promote the construction of new maximum security prisons, similar to those that exist in El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele, a source of inspiration for the Noboa security plan, imprisoned several members and leaders of criminal factions. Such prisons would be designed by the same company that worked in the Central American country.
Furthermore, the plan aimed to militarize the borders and promote “significant” reforms in security institutions, such as the penitentiary and judicial systems, to try to remove individuals who are tainted by corruption from the spheres of public power. It also covered the creation of prison boats, which would serve to keep the main leaders of the country's criminal factions imprisoned around 130 kilometers from the coast. Noboa even stated that he had already acquired “three vessels” to implement this new policy.
According to information published by the Argentine newspaper There NationIn December, Mónica Palencia, Ecuador's Interior Minister, told local radio that the government was already holding talks with Israeli, Mexican, American and Salvadoran companies to obtain advice and financing for the development of this plan.
Earlier this month, the Ecuadorian president stated that he wanted to further strengthen security and undertake other measures to benefit his country's economy. To this end, the government has prepared a referendum, which is already in the possession of the Constitutional Court, which seeks the support of the population to develop measures such as the extension of prison sentences for serious crimes, such as homicide and arms trafficking, and the permission to that the Army eradicates international criminal groups that terrorize cities and institutions from the country.
“This consultation [o referendo] has three clear objectives: the intervention of the Armed Forces in the fight against crime, the support of the justice system so that those convicted of organized crime have higher sentences and the promotion of employment through new hiring and new economic activities”, he said Noboa in an interview with a local radio station.
However, in the midst of the president's attempt to reformulate the country's security system, José Adolfo Macías, “Fito”, leader of the Los Choneros faction, the most powerful in Ecuador, fled. The exact date on which the criminal escaped from jail was not specified by the government, which only confirmed on Sunday (7) that he had “disappeared”.
The disappearance of “Fito” was the trigger for criminals to decide to turn the country into a true battlefield this week. The government, which was already working on new public security plans, immediately decided to decree a state of exception in Ecuador, which was responded to by criminal organizations with the intensification of violence through several rebellions in prisons, where employees and prison guards are still being held hostage.
The violence even went beyond prison walls and reached several cities, where bandits terrorized the population on the streets and invaded a TV channel that broadcast a live program and a university, both in Guayaquil. In the capital, Quito, there were explosions in official residences and vehicle fires, in addition to exchanges of gunfire between criminals and security forces.
With the chaos installed, the Noboa government reacted again, this time decreeing the existence of an “internal armed conflict” in the country and authorizing the Armed Forces to assist the police in combating crime and to control the South American country's prisons.
In an interview with the newspaper The state of Sao PauloCarolina Andrade, Quito's security secretary, said she believed that the chaos and violence brought about by criminals were a direct reaction by the factions to President Noboa's decisions, which aimed to tighten the country's security policy.
The decree that confirmed the existence of an “armed internal conflict” in Ecuador was the plan and the toughest measure put into practice against crime to date by Noboa. With the decree in place, local security forces are acting more directly against the factions and their members.
To this end, Noboa also classified all the main factions in the country as terrorist organizations, including Los Choneros de “Fito”. The president also said that judges and prosecutors who collaborate with crime will also be prosecuted as part of the “terrorist network”. Noboa also announced that it will transfer more than a thousand Colombian prisoners out of the country, who will be handed over to authorities in their home country.
According to the president, with the decrees in place, organized crime will “think twice” before carrying out actions like those seen around the world on Tuesday (9).
“We are in a state of war and we cannot give in to these terrorist groups,” Noboa said in an interview on Wednesday (10).
It is with the state of exception in force, which suspended the rights to freedom of association, inviolability of home, inviolability of correspondence in prisons and freedom of movement between 11pm and 5am, and the decree on the existence of an internal armed conflict that President Noboa will try over the next few days to regain control over an Ecuador that is still handed over to cartels and drug trafficking.
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