The spiral of violence that Ecuador has been experiencing for several months has had one of its most complex moments this week with twenty attacks in three coastal provinces, which the government of Guillermo Lasso considers a organized crime retaliation for its fight against drug trafficking.
Despite this, the country resumed taking a tense break this Friday during the bridge party that will last until Sunday and which began on Thursday, when there was also a violent revolt in the Guayaquil penitentiary, suffocated by the intervention of 2,600 police and military agents.
Conservative President Guillermo Lasso ruled on Tuesday evening the State of exception in the coastal provinces of Guayas (in the southwest and whose capital is Guayaquil) and Esmeraldas (in the northwest and on the border with Colombia). I had already made the same decision a year ago, due to a similar situation.
Also this Friday, the exceptional measure was extended to Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, where they too were registered. attacks and riots.
Lasso did not hesitate to affirm that the situation is a “terrorist response” by organized crime to its fight against drug trafficking, especially due to the more than 180 tons of drugs seized so far this year.
Ecuador, which is not considered a drug producer, borders two large producers, Peru and Colombia, which is why, according to industry experts, it has become something of a warehouse for drug trafficking to large consumer markets such as the United States and Europe.
The president also linked this retaliation by violent groups to the allegedly “opportunistic” action of some opposition politicians who criticize its management, although he has not presented further evidence of his suspicion.
Violence, from prison to the streets
Several analysts believe that the violence in the streets is linked to the prison crisis that erupted in 2020 and which saw with astonishment the killing of over 400 inmates in frequent clashes between gangs of inmates who contest control of prisons.
According to them, the prison crisis has taken to the streets because the bombings and shootings recorded earlier this week coincided with the relocation of more than 1,400 inmates from the Guayaquil penitentiary to other prisons.
Precisely in pavilion 2 of that prison, where the gang of “Chone killers” would have built a barracks, clashes took place on Thursday between inmates and the public force, with explosions and shootings, as if it were a war.
Besides that band, there are the known bands like “Los Choneros”, “Los Lobos”, “Los Tiguerones” and “Los Lagartos”, among others.
For Carolina Andrade, an expert in prison and public safety issues, the situation of violence “has not changed” in the eighteen months in which Lasso is in power.
According to Andrade, the spiral of violence is also explained by an apparent “inaction” by the government to comply with the recommendations of national and international organizations.
He recalled that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has already launched calls to prevent new massacres in prisons, such as the allocation of larger budgets, actions to reduce overcrowding and build a new system of social rehabilitation.
However, Andrade said he viewed it with concern criminal gangs have also gained ground on the streetabove all because it can seduce a sector of the population that has no opportunity to get out of the economic crisis that overwhelms the Ecuadorians.
“illicit economy”
According to the expert, the local population seems to have normalized the violence and “survive in that illicit economy” created by criminal gangs.
On the part of the state, he said, there has also been no emphasis on social programs and generating conditions for people to overcome the crisis that has worsened with the covid-19 pandemic is not in sight.
“That inaction, that lack of timely decision-making” by the government could also be considered “suspicious” and even “complicity,” Andrade said, wondering if the rumors warning of hidden relationships between authorities and gang leaders criminals.
For her, the frequent states of exception that the Executive has decreed “have not worked so far” and only “patch measures” have been applied.
Source: EFE
CB
Source: Clarin
