Ecuador’s president offers more police and equipment to fight insecurity

Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso announced today, Tuesday, that 10,000 new uniformed officers will join the ranks of the National Police in 2023 to strengthen the fight against insecurity in the country, where three provinces plagued by violence are under a state of emergency.

“We are going to strengthen the National Police. We have already incorporated 1,500 new police officers, and we have also received 8,500 young people in the police training school,” said the president during a visit to the Tactical and Intelligence Units of the Police in the city of Guayaquil (southwest).

Lasso stressed that the increase of 10,000 new police officers is part of the commitment he made months ago to incorporate 30,000 additional police officers to address growing insecurity and organized crime.

“We are acquiring new equipment such as armored anti-riot trucks, armored vans, and also so that they can perform their tasks safely, we are buying 60,000 new vests of the latest generation to protect their lives from criminals,” he said.

He also announced the acquisition of weapons, ammunition, and everything necessary to strengthen the operational and logistical capacity of the security forces.

The president thanked the police for their efforts to maintain peace and security in the country after a score of car bombings and attacks on police units in the provinces of Guayas, Esmeraldas, and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas earlier this month, which left five police officers dead.

The escalation of violence led the president to decree a state of exception (emergency) and curfew in those provinces for 45 days to counteract the high levels of insecurity attributed to drug gangs, which are reacting to the government’s fight against drug trafficking.

According to the Ecuadorian government, 690 people have been arrested in the three provinces in a state of emergency due to 8,868 security operations and 71 raids.

With information from Xinhua