Small merchants, businessmen, educational establishments and even public contractors are part of the list of victims of a form of extortion that has taken hold in the national territory, mainly in the largest cities, called the collection of ‘vaccines’.
Criminal groups related, in many cases, to drug trafficking demand the periodic payment of a certain amount of money in exchange for giving supposed protection to the potential victim. On other occasions, these gangs opt for direct threats: if someone does not cancel what they demand, then they will suffer an attack that includes the use of explosives.
The National Assembly penalizes the so-called “vaccines” sets a jail term of up to 7 years and forces a fine of up to $36,000
From January to October 2022, the Prosecutor’s Office received 6,475 complaints for the crime of extortion; 1,260 were attempts and 5,215 people reported the crime already completed. In all of 2021, 2,797 complaints were registered in the country.
In the early hours of this Friday, January 6, the owner of a bakery was murdered in the Los Pinos cooperative, located at kilometer 26 of the road to Daule. The victim had barely opened his business at 05:30 and received his first clients when two antisocials arrived on a motorcycle and shot him three times.
The now deceased had no criminal record, according to the National Police. And although the motivation for this crime has not yet been determined, one possibility that is being considered is that the man has refused to pay for the so-called ‘vaccinations’.
To counteract this and other problems, the National Assembly approved this Thursday the Organic Law to Reform Various Legal Bodies for the Strengthening of Institutional Capacities and Comprehensive Security, which, among other things, toughens the penalties for the so-called ‘vaccines’, raises a restructuring of the prison system and addresses issues of both citizen security and national defense.
The bill was approved with 117 votes and will be reported to the Executive for its sanction or veto within a period of 30 days.
The normative applies reforms to nine laws: Public Security of the State, Organic National Defense, Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code (COIP), Organic Code of Entities for Citizen Security and Public Order, Code for Children and Adolescents, Organic Law on Extinction of Domain, Organic Code of the Judicial Function, Organic Law of Public Service and Telecommunications Law.
How is extortion or the collection of ‘vaccines’ sanctioned?
In this regard, the approved project establishes a substitution in article 185 of the COIP by the following text:
“The person who, with the purpose of obtaining personal benefit or for a third party, demands or compels another, with violence or intimidation in any way or by any means, including through digital, electronic means or the use of pamphlets, flyers or similar, to carry out or omit an act, payment, delivery of goods, deposits or legal business to the detriment of their patrimony or that of a third party, will be sanctioned with a custodial sentence of three to five years and a fine of twenty ($9,000 ) to twenty-four ($10,800) unified basic wages of the worker in general”.
Five to seven years in jail
The sanction will be from five to seven years of imprisonment and a fine of twenty-four ($10,800) to forty ($18,000) basic salaries if any of the following circumstances is verified:
– If the victim is a person under 18 years of age, over 65 years of age, a pregnant woman or a person with a disability, or a person suffering from diseases that compromise their life.
-If it is executed with the intervention of a person with whom the victim maintains a labor, business or other similar relationship or with a trusted person or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity and second degree of affinity.
– If a public authority is simulated or carried out in application of an order issued by a competent authority.
Penalty of seven to ten years of imprisonment
The penalty of seven to ten years in prison and a fine of forty ($18,000) to eighty ($36,000) basic salaries in these cases:
– If it is committed by one or more people on a regular or repetitive basis, limiting the normal development of the victim’s habitual, professional or economic activities.
– If the constraint is executed with a threat of death, injury, kidnapping or act from which calamity, misfortune or common danger may arise.
– If it is ordered or committed totally or partially from a center of deprivation of liberty.
– If committed totally or partially from abroad.
– If it is committed as part of the actions or operations of organized crime.
Gabriel Vanegas, criminal lawyer and Master in Criminal Justice, considers that the punitive power of the State already had the tools to sanction the crime of extortion or collection of ‘vaccines’ before the recently approved reform.
Currently, the COIP sanctions extortion with a prison sentence of three to seven years and does not contemplate a pecuniary fine.
He believes that the lack of articulation or strategies between the Police, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary is what has caused this crime to overflow to the point of causing panic among citizens.
The legislator hopes that it is a psychological coercion in some way that prevents the alleged offender from committing the crime under fear of sanction or penalty. But really, in practice, if you realize, criminalization does not reduce crimes, it simply serves to suppress
Gabriel Vanegas, criminal lawyer
“Even with all the effect of the norm, the effect generated by the classification, the legislator hopes that it is a psychological coercion in some way that prevents the alleged offender from committing the crime under fear of sanction or penalty. But really, in practice, if you realize, the classification of crimes does not reduce crimes, it simply serves to repress you,” said the specialist.
And he gave as an example the COIP reform in 2014 that criminalized femicide. From that date to the present, he maintained, this crime has not necessarily been reduced, because “definition does not serve to prevent, simply to punish.”
Hence, more than reforms, Vanegas is in favor of implementing prevention strategies based on public policy, that the approach is more preventive than repressive and that criminal behaviors are avoided rather than punished.
Antonio Gagliardo, former provincial prosecutor of Guayas, agrees with this, who sees as positive that the criminal type has been updated to the existing criminal action. However, in his opinion, the sanction in cases of attacks with injuries or deaths should have been more severe.
‘Vaccinators’ sow panic among business owners in Bastión Popular with pamphlets that they leave in stores
Not only is it enough to typify and delusionally believe that there will no longer be a crime. No, the Police, the Government, the authorities will have to fight for prevention
Antonio Gagliardo, former Provincial Prosecutor of Guayas
“It will always be good to improve criminal laws, make them tougher on this type of crime. And I agree that it is not enough to define and delusionally believe that there will no longer be a crime. No, the Police, the Government, the authorities will have to fight for prevention, to disrupt the gangs, to protect people engaged in commerce, whose lives are now in danger because now everyone is being asked for a ‘vaccine’”, he explained. the former official.
Saudia Levoyer, journalist, university professor and columnist for this newspaper, also referred to the crime of extortion in an article published on the previous December 6.
There he pointed out that the policy of fear and violence that has been tried to be imposed in the country shows an institutional weakness, so the responses to this problem must be comprehensive. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
