Ecuador’s military takes control of provinces taken over by drug and crime groups

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A 9,000-strong military and police force took control of Ecuador’s three provinces hardest hit by drug trafficking and crime, which have left more than 1,200 dead so far this year and led the government to declare a state of emergency.

The 60-day emergency measure, in force since April 30 in the coastal regions of Guayas, Manabí, and Esmeraldas (the latter bordering Colombia), includes a nighttime curfew for the most violent areas of localities such as the port of Guayaquil, the country’s commercial hub.

The security forces entered troubled and depressed areas, where access was difficult for agents.

The governor of Guayas (whose capital is Guayaquil), Pablo Arosemena, told AFP that the priority is to re-establish order in areas under mafia control. “We need prolonged and sustained interventions so that insecurity rates stabilize and decrease during the state of emergency,” he noted.

Operations were carried out on April 30 in the impoverished Guasmo, south of Guayaquil. “We hope that they (military and police) help clean the city of so many bad people,” said Mercedes Ortiz, 67, at the door of her home.

Criminals “Sometimes they kill children at adults’ feet. You can’t live safely,” she noted.

In his declared war on drug trafficking, conservative President Guillermo Lasso re-ordered a state of emergency on Friday, citing a severe internal upheaval due to insecurity.

REPRESSION WITH THE MILITARY

The drug trade has led to increased crime in Ecuador, with 1,255 deaths – including decapitations and mutilations – in the first four months of this year compared to 2,500 in 2021 and 1,400 in 2020, according to official figures.

Nearly 440 crimes have occurred in Guayaquil (capital of Guayas) and the neighboring town of Duran, both the most insecure. Some 60% of all homicides have happened in the three provinces now patrolled by the military.

Although the measure was to take effect at 00H00 local time (05H00 GMT) on Saturday, April 30, according to Lasso, as soon as it was announced, hundreds of uniformed men armed with rifles began to control hot spots such as Cerro Las Cabras in Duran, AFP journalists observed.

However, human rights lawyer Xavier Flores considered that the state of emergency would not be a panacea against organized crime.

“If it is thought to be the solution to drug trafficking, it is a misconception because this is much more complex than repressing with the military. We are talking about structural problems, where public policies and state investment are needed to develop these very impoverished sectors,” the former university professor told AFP.

Durán, with more than 300,000 inhabitants, is considered a drug warehouse and where micro-trafficking, according to authorities, moves up to US$1.8 million a month.

“This is terrible. We are all affected by the insecurity,” said Javier Mora, a resident of Durán, adding that it is dangerous to stay in public places. When going to a restaurant, “now you buy to take away because of the insecurity,” he said.

In that town, two bodies appeared in February suspended from ropes from a pedestrian bridge, in the style of crimes committed by Mexican cartels.

FIGHTING IN NARCO-TERRITORIES

Bordering Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest cocaine producers, Ecuador serves as a departure point for large drug shipments, mainly through Guayaquil, the largest port, through which they are exported mainly to the United States and Europe.

In 2021, the country seized an annual record 210 tons of drugs, mainly cocaine. So far, in 2022, seizures have reached 75 tons.

“Our society will not be subdued; our peace will never be sacrificed to anyone’s dirty business,” Lasso said in announcing the state of emergency. “We will take the fight against criminals to the very territory where they try to hide them and their dirty goods.”

For security expert Fredy Rivera, an effective fight against drug trafficking must include the “purging” of state structures that have been infiltrated and where corruption is rampant.

“Organized crime has the State and Ecuadorian society ambushed and captive,” the director of the Latin American Journal of Security Studies URVIO told AFP.

Various drug gangs are fighting in the streets and prisons of Ecuador for control of storage, markets, and routes for cocaine shipments to the United States and Europe.

In several prisons, there have been bloody armed clashes between prisoners members of drug trafficking organizations, with 350 dead since February 2021 in massacres that have become among the worst in Latin America.

With information from AFP