Status: 10/19/2021 9:25 a.m.
Murders, robberies, break-ins. Ecuador is sinking into a vortex of violence. The reason is the rampant drug trade. Now the president has declared a state of emergency on the country.
In the face of increasing violence and drug-related crime, the Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso has declared a state of emergency on the country. The president said in a televised address that the military and police would be deployed on the streets to ensure security. “There is only one enemy: the drug trade,” he said.
Ecuador is no longer a drug-trafficking country, Lasso said. “This is reflected not only in the amount of drugs consumed in our country, but also in the number of crimes that are now directly or indirectly related to the sale of narcotics,” said Lasso. Drug trafficking has led to an increase in homicides, break-ins, thefts and robberies. The state of emergency gives the authorities, among other things, the power to restrict freedom of movement and assembly.
Uniformed officers should be better protected
The President also announced the establishment of a legal protection unit. This is supposed to defend uniformed officers “who have been sued for fulfilling their duties”. Lasso said judges should guarantee peace and order, not protect impunity and crime. “The national government will use all law enforcement agencies to do one job: to restore the security of its citizens,” said the president. “We will take up the fight against the underworld wherever it is hiding.”
That year bloody revolts broke out in the country’s prisons over drug violence, particularly in Guayaquil. According to the authorities, the background was clashes between inmates of rival mafia gangs who are connected to Mexican drug cartels. About 230 people were killed.
Two days ago, police seized more than a ton and a half of cocaine off the coast of Ecuador. The drugs were hidden in a ship. The drug cartels often smuggle cocaine produced in the South American Andean countries of Colombia, Bolivia and Peru by sea to Central America and then overland to the USA.