The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, once again declared a state of emergency in the country with the argument of combating violence driven by drug trafficking. This time, the provinces of Guayas, Manabí and Esmeraldas will have greater policing and a 60-day curfew, the president announced on Friday night (29).
“The streets will feel the weight of the public force,” Lasso said, adding that 4,000 police officers and another 5,000 armed forces will be distributed among the three provinces to “enforce peace and order.”
The measure will take effect from 00:00 on Saturday (30), and the curfew will be held from 23:00 to 05:00 local time (1:00 to 07:00 in Brasília time). Guayaquil, the commercial center of the country and capital of the province of Guayas, is one of the main points of attention.
Since the beginning of the year, official figures show, 1,255 people have died in episodes linked to drug trafficking, and around 440 cases have been recorded in Guayaquil and Durán alone, the latter also a city in Guayas. The situation in the prisons is also worrying – at least 350 died in fights between factions.
The new state of exception decree comes just weeks before Lasso completes one year in office. The date was also set in government with a renewal of the presidential office. Lasso asked, also this Friday, for the resignation of his ministers of Energy, Agriculture and Human Rights – the folder that takes care of the prisons.
The Secretary of Communication, in a social network, says that the initiative is part of a broad evaluation of the cabinet and that the changes to “better profiles” will be pertinent to fulfill the government’s objectives.
An exchange had already been made, on Wednesday (27), at the Ministry of Defense. Luis Hernández resigned, amid the war project against drug trafficking, and the former joint chief of the Armed Forces Luis Lara (2019-2021) took over the portfolio. Lasso paid tribute to Lara’s military trajectory, which, he said, reflects his professionalism and shows that he is up to the task of organizing the security of the South American country.
Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo said this week he recognized that Ecuador is going through a crisis of insecurity linked to crime. Last year, the country seized an annual record of 210 tons of drugs, mainly cocaine. From January to April this year, seizures reached 75 tonnes, Lasso said.
Last weekend, authorities in the country located a small plane with more than 200 kg of cocaine on a clandestine airstrip in the province of Santa Elena, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
Bordered by Colombia and Peru, two of the largest cocaine producers in the world, the Ecuadorian territory serves as an exit point for illicit shipments to the United States and Europe, mainly from the commercial center of Guayaquil.
Lasso also declared a state of emergency across the country last October. At the time, the Ecuadorian, a former banker involved in the Pandora Papers case, even threatened to enact the mechanism known as “cross-death”, which allows the president to dissolve the Constitutional Assembly.
With it, within seven days of the publication of the decree, the National Electoral Council must call elections for all positions in the Legislature and for the Presidency. Until then, Lasso would rule by decree. The newly elected would only take office to finish the term, and everyone who already holds positions today could run again.
