Ecuador declares war on organized crime

In just twenty hours between September 16 and 17, ten people were murdered in the cities of Guayaquil, Durán, and Samborondón in Ecuador’s Guayas province.

On September 19, prosecutor Édgar Escobar was “shot in front of the La Merced prosecutor’s office building” in Guayaquil; more than 1,000 violent deaths have already been recorded in the three cities this year through mid-September.

In light of this violence, the government of Guillermo Lasso decided on September 13 to extend the state of emergency in these cities for another thirty days until mid-October.

The measure was initially taken on August 14, when an explosion in Barrio Cristo del Consuelo, southwest of Guayaquil, left five dead and seventeen injured in what Ecuadorian authorities classified as a terrorist act.

Since then, authorities have registered other explosive attacks in the province, such as a car explosion on the night of September 17 in northern Guayaquil and the early morning attack on August 22 with an explosive device on a store in front of a kindergarten in northwestern Guayaquil.

According to Reuters, by mid-August, about 145 explosive attacks had been registered in Ecuador – 72 in Guayaquil alone.

“The extension of the state of emergency is necessary to continue efforts to pacify and control areas where organized crime groups have increased their illegal activities,” the order confirming an extension of the measure reads.

“We will not allow organized crime to try to rule the country,” Lasso said in August when he announced the measure via Twitter.

As a result, the Joint Task Force of the Guayas Armed Forces, formed to combat drug trafficking and organized crime, remains in place.

Although violence appears to be getting out of hand, the Guayas Joint Task Force has dealt heavy blows to criminal groups, and its work “has been productive,” the General Secretariat for Communications of the Presidency said in a September 14 statement.

The task force’s successes include dismantling a criminal organization that carried out robberies, assaults, and kidnappings for ransom, as well as the seizure of more than two hundred and twenty firearms and more than 900 stabbing weapons since the state of emergency began, the statement said.

For its part, the National Secretariat of Public and State Security welcomed the extension of the measure, which allowed it to contain the indicators of violence after its implementation and recorded a decrease in crimes such as theft of vehicles and property and robbery.

Thus, the indicators of the National Police registered a decrease of 44% in crime, with the most affected areas reflecting a significant crime reduction.

In terms of violence, the impact has been particularly strong in Samborondón,” said Dorian Balladares, a representative of the Directorate of Public Security and Order.

According to the General Secretariat of Communications of the Presidency, with the extension of the state of emergency, strategies to maintain the frontal fight against crime and organized crime will be pursued in the most problematic sectors.

“We will unite our efforts on all fronts to fight the underworld. We will not give the criminal groups a break and will continue to strengthen the work of law enforcement agencies,” stressed Guayas Governor Lorenzo Calvas.

With information from Latina Press