Military and police personnel conduct patrols in the most violent neighborhoods in Esmeraldas, Ecuador. Vicente Gaibor
There is not a day in Ecuador that the number of victims of violent crime does not number in the dozens. Violence is no longer concentrated in Guayaquil and is spreading to other cities such as Durán, Manta, Quevedo and Quito. Attacks are carried out at any time of the day by assassins or bombings. Targets can range from a neighborhood store to judicial units where hearings are held and where victims include children.
The small South American country, which just a few years ago was considered one of the most peaceful in the region, is experiencing the worst crisis of insecurity in its history. Police statistics show that between January and June this year, 3,513 murders were recorded, a 58% increase compared to 2022. This year the homicide rate was 26 per 100,000 people, now it is already 20 and rising, so that it is estimated to reach 40 homicides per 100,000 people by the end of the year, making it the most violent country in the region.
This catastrophic scenario comes amid expected presidential and general elections, in which the new administration will have no room for improvisation, warns Carolina Andrade, a security analyst. “You can’t wait for something as basic as police equipment,” says Andrade. The eight presidential candidates know that insecurity is the main concern of Ecuadorians, who are constantly threatened by crimes such as extortion and kidnapping, which have increased by up to 300% compared to 2022.
For political analyst Oswaldo Moreno, the citizen must demand of candidates “that they explain what public safety policy will be and that they assume that the responsibility lies solely with the executive branch, not with local governments or with of the Assembly.” “, he says. Moreno, because that has been the constant struggle of the governments on duty, each time the uncertainty increases.
In the government plans the couples have submitted to the electoral board, all have identified security as a priority, with the majority agreeing on five points: providing contributions to public authorities, cleaning up the police, reforming the judiciary and penitentiary system, and oversight prisons and fight against transnational organized crime; However, speeches by some of them about how they will implement public safety policies trouble Moreno. “There is a kind of candidate who dresses up as a bukele and makes reference to the prisoners’ non-feeding and forced labor.”
He refers to some statements by Otto Sonneholzner, who suggested that people in prisons “carry their own weight, less dangerous people can sweep the streets, improve public infrastructure to generate income and not cost us,” the candidate said The proposal includes arming the police force and disarming criminals, and creating an elite force of police and armed forces that would even allow judges and prosecutors who deal with the cases of the most dangerous criminals from the to send abroad.
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Other proponents, such as Bolívar Armijos, are considering submitting Law 100 to the new assembly for security, which states that “murderers spend the same time in prison as their victims lived, assuming an average life expectancy of 100 years ‘ the text explains. For example, “If the person kills a 75-year-old, they will serve 25 years in prison.” If you kill a 50-year-old, you will serve 50 years in prison, if you kill or rape a 10-year-old, you will serve 90 years in prison.” He also assures that from the first week of his term he will expel foreigners with criminal records and that his security policy will include “massive self-defense and Krav Maga courses for female victims of gender-based violence and young people”.
The candidates agree that security must be taken with a “strong hand”. That’s the phrase they repeat most often in a campaign that hasn’t officially started yet, but Andrade insists that “clear priorities and experience are needed because improvisation has cost us to get to the moment where we live,” he adds. Presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in Ecuador on August 20th, culminating in the phase interrupted by Guillermo Lasso’s “death-cross” decree, which was due to end in May 2025.
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