With questions, concerns and warnings, the process of the partial constitutional reform proposed by the Executive to article 158 of the Constitution began in order to allow complementary support from the Armed Forces to the National Police in the fight against organized crime.
Said procedure is in charge of the occasional commission of constitutional amendments chaired by the Pachakutik legislator Isabel Enríquez. The approved work schedule determines maximum terms for the socialization processes and appearances of social actors, professors and politicians.
The appearances began the previous week with a presentation by Fabián Pozo, legal secretary of the Presidency of the Republic, on the scope of the proposal, as well as three experts and professors in constitutional matters.
National Assembly makes viable constitutional reform process that will allow the participation of the FF. AA. in the fight against organized crime
For this week the presence of the Minister of the Interior, Juan Zapata; the General Commander of the Police, Fausto Salinas; professors and experts in constitutional law and human rights, such as André Benavides, Juan Pablo Albán and Pablo Encalada, among others.
The Executive, in its proposal for constitutional reform, proposes to change the text of article 158 of the Constitution.
The proposed question would be the following: “Currently, the Armed Forces cannot support the National Police in internal protection and maintenance of public order, unless there is a declaration of a state of emergency. Do you agree that the complementary support of the Armed Forces is allowed in the functions of the National Police to combat organized crime, partially reforming the Constitution in accordance with the provisions of annex 1?
The appearances, according to the approved schedule, will last until next February 4; the approval of the report for the first debate will be on February 11, and the delivery of the document to the presidency of the Assembly is scheduled for Tuesday, February 14.
According to Juan Francisco Guerrero, university professor and expert in constitutional lawthe commission should consider what the Constitutional Court said in its opinion that the Executive’s proposal is too general and that some kind of limits would have to be established, and make it clear that the President of the Republic does not order, but rather decrees the complementary support.
It is essential, adds Guerrero, to establish that the participation of the Armed Forces. AA. it must have a specific time limit, since the first agent cannot be granted an extraordinary power without limits or indefinitely; nor can the president decree the complementary support of the Armed Forces in cases other than combating organized crime; therefore, this attribution cannot be used to repress social mobilizations. In addition, he said that the measure must have a type of control of a legal nature in the hands of the Constitutional Court and political control by the National Assembly.
Pablo de la Vega, coordinator of the Segundo Montes Mozo Human Rights Center, warns that it is intended to use the FF. AA. and the security paradigm for responses of a social nature and responses of a political nature, which could have human rights approaches.
One of the new threats in security policies is drug trafficking, and that this is being used as a justification for investigative actions and forms of surveillance supposedly directed at criminal groups; but many times they are used against political opponents, social actors, and have an impact on the rights to organization, participation, protest and privacy.
Dolores Miño, director of the Rights and Justice Observatoryrecommends that legislators take into account the binding standards of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and stresses that the issue of citizen security is a human rights issue.
That the State wants to ensure citizen security is compatible with international obligations on human rights, but it must also be said that the construction of a citizen security policy necessarily has to observe and respect rights standards to limit the exercise of interventions by part of the public force.
The president of the table, Isabel Enríquez, says that in this first stage of analysis, all political, social, human rights, professors and citizens will be included in the debate with the purpose of knowing their concerns. The commission will open a responsible debate with national and international experts, he added.
The representative of Zamora Chinchipe aspires to present a report that contributes to providing a solution to the problem of insecurity that the country is experiencing, since there are provinces and towns that were full of peace and are now overflowing with foreigners, such as Colombians and Venezuelans, who are immersed in acts of usury and the chulco, which contributes to the environment of insecurity.
Legislators Ricardo Vanegas (Pachakutik) and Marlon Cadena (ID), who make up the occasional table, expressed their concerns and fears, and even doubt that the reform is necessary to allow the participation of the FF. AA. on issues of insecurity and combating organized crime. But the official representative, Blanca Sacancela, points out that it is too early to anticipate criteria on the need for a reform of the Constitution that must transcend beyond the government of the day.
Vanegas maintains that the appearance of the legal adviser to the Presidency, Fabián Pozo, was not convincing and remained in the doctrinal content; In addition, it should be specified that organized crime is not contemplated in Ecuadorian legislation, what exists is the expression organized crime. It should also be taken into account that the Armed Forces are prepared for external defense and not internal security.
In addition, it warns that it must be avoided that, under the pretext of fighting organized crime, the FF. AA. come out to repress social protest under the concept that these are planned by organized crime. “The Executive’s proposal does not convince me,” said Vanegas, because through a state of emergency the Armed Forces can leave.
At the discretion of legislator Marlon Cadena (ID), the partial reform of the Constitution is a smoke screen, since it is about distracting attention and intends to leave the responsibility of defining the issue to the National Assembly, when the country knows that there is little and poor management of the Executive regarding security. Security does not go through more laws and reforms, but through the political will of the Government to deliver resources, endowment, strengthening and training to the institutions in charge of Ecuador’s internal security.
The representative of Pichincha warns that the path proposed by the Executive will bring controversy and debate, because the Government can order the timely participation of the FF through a state of emergency. AA. in matters of combating insecurity, and considered that it would be better to bet on a reform of the constitutional article referring to the scope of states of exception; This would prevent the military from being used for other purposes, such as persecuting or looking for scapegoats.
Blanca Sacancela, legislator of the Bancada Acuerdo Nacional (BAN)refutes what his fellow legislators maintain, and even those who have already appeared before the table, since he assures that these positions are very early, because the main security actors in the country must be listened to, such as the secretaries of the branch , Armed Forces and National Police.
The constitutional reform on the complementary participation of the Armed Forces in the fight against organized crime must be thought beyond the current Government and take into account some experiences of neighboring countries. The Executive’s proposal, he clarifies, is a response to the wave of insecurity in the country, led by criminal structures; It is not a reform for Guillermo Lasso, but for Ecuador. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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