Why can’t the Lasso government stop the wave of violence in Ecuador?

By Sebastián Ochoa

Ecuador is going through a wave of violence that Lasso’s Government cannot control.

The president, like his officials, blames a single enemy: drug trafficking and the fights between criminal gangs for territories and cocaine trade areas.

In the last week, more than 30 people suffered violent deaths in Guayaquil (south) and Esmeraldas (north).

According to government investigations, the majority (21) died in or near the Litoral Penitentiary, located in the port city from where tons of drugs from Peru and Colombia leave.

This crisis led to the resignation of Ecuador’s National Secretary of Public Security and State, Diego Ordonez, a position that remains vacant.

The outlook clouds the prospects of Lasso’s Government, already damaged by the impeachment trial against him in the National Assembly, for the alleged crime of embezzlement, following the investigation for alleged corruption known as El Gran Padrino (The Great Godfather).

The Government’s response to the wave of violence was unusual: it allowed the population to carry weapons to defend themselves against criminals.

Likewise, it tries to give the Armed Forces more control of the streets.

Specialists consulted by Sputnik questioned the effectiveness of these measures.

Assemblywoman Mireya Pazmiño recalled that last April 2, when he signed the decree allowing the carrying of arms, Lasso “published a tweet that he later took down, but it had already been saved.”

It said, “Now Ecuadorians are at war with criminals, and we must defend ourselves with our own hands.”

The increase in violence in Ecuador is eloquent.

The murder rate nearly doubled between 2021 and 2022, from 14 to 25 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

“At this time, when we are all alarmed by the strong violence that we Ecuadorians suffer when insecurity has increased, as well as violent deaths, it is not pertinent that the president comes out with that kind of decisions,” Pazmiño told Sputnik about legalizing the carrying of weapons.

The assemblywoman said Lasso “has not generated any public policy to address insecurity. He has not provided a budget for the national police institution to have all the necessary equipment to go out to the streets”.

He commented that the constitutionality of this controversial decree is being analyzed in the National Assembly.

The wave of violence led the Guayas Retail Merchants Association to mobilize in Guayaquil, demanding more security for their businesses, which suffer constant extortion by armed groups.

The march occurred on April 12, after the police released the shopkeeper Alberto S., whose captors demanded US$500,000 to return him alive.

Some demonstrators, who marched with their faces covered, stated that they had registered losses of up to 50% because they had to close early due to threats from extortionists.

The governor of Guayas, Francesco Tabacchi, promised to increase police presence and offered anti-panic buttons to the merchants.

Pazmiño said there is a bill in the Assembly “so that when the Ecuadorian State requires it, they can coordinate the Army and the Police to go to the streets”. This discussion is not yet on the agenda.

UNSTOPPABLE VIOLENCE

• In the Penitenciaría del Litoral de Guayaquil, last April 12, guards found six prisoners hanging in their pavilion.
• The following day (April 13), three guards from the women’s prison were having lunch in a restaurant behind the walls when hired assassins killed them.
• On the same night of April 13, a dozen low-intensity explosive devices also went off in Guayaquil.
• On April 15, the authorities confirmed the killing of 12 inmates in what they consider a confrontation between gangs that continue to run the drug trafficking business from the inside.
• As of last March, this prison complex – the largest in Ecuador – housed 12,232 people, although its capacity is 9,500.

Violence also affects the north: 30 men shot and killed nine fishermen in the port of Esmeraldas.

According to government investigations, several tons of cocaine destined for Asia and Europe are also leaving this area.

In the last week, three young friends in their 20s told their families they were going to the beach, but they appeared days later, murdered and buried on the banks of the Esmeraldas River.

This triple femicide is also linked to the actions of drug trafficking gangs.

Lina María Espinosa is a lawyer and human rights defender.

She is a member of Front Line Defenders, as well as the Human Rights Alliance of Ecuador.

In an interview with Sputnik, she said that “since 2022, there has been a very significant increase in different criminal acts, particularly crimes against people’s lives”.

Espinosa commented that prison massacres, reports of missing persons who later turn up lifeless, and extortive kidnappings had become a daily occurrence.

“All these events occur in a context that has been exacerbated by the dynamics of the conflict between groups with interests in drug trafficking or organized crime,” said the lawyer.

“These disputes occur for the occupation of certain territories or the imposition of their rules.”

“All this in the face of passive action by the State and the Lasso government,” she added.

Espinosa commented that she is “very surprised” by the Government’s passivity in facing this context.

“On April 13, the US Embassy in Guayaquil issued a security alert for possible explosions of devices throughout the night, calling its citizens to refrain from visiting public places”.

For the human rights defender, the detonation of 10 devices “seems to be an act of intimidation, to sow fear among the citizens”.

In this sense, she questioned the fact that the Ecuadorian police had not taken action in response to the information that the embassy did have.

She expressed concern about “the narrative promoted by the government on security issues, which shows a significant increase in acts of xenophobia and discrimination, pretending to point to third parties, for example, Venezuelan citizens, as responsible for this increase in crime”.

LEGAL CARRYING OF WEAPONS

For Espinosa, the security crisis in Ecuador “evidences that Lasso cannot govern or make decisions”.

A manifestation of this would be the decree allowing weapons to be carried.

The lawyer pointed out that Lasso’s decree “does not put the solution in the hands of the citizens, but in the hands of the rich citizens” because the procedures and permits required to carry a gun would only be accessible to people with high purchasing power.

“Carrying arms in Ecuador is not the solution to organized crime or drug trafficking. They are already armed and will not legalize their possession and carrying.”

“They will have ‘legal access’ to weapons, which will be used in contexts of poverty, inequality, hunger, and lack of employment.”

“They are going to attack the permanently excluded,” she said.

With information from Sputnik