Violence intensifies in Guayaquil. In broad daylight, a man boarded an urban bus in the Monte Sinai sector, northwest of the city, and shot and killed one of the passengers, in an event that occurred at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, January 16.
Added to this scenario, the most recent, are other crimes that have even left newborn children as collateral victims. This was the case of Emily, one month old, who died after an attack at the Guayas y Quil cooperative, in Guasmo, on the night of January 9.
Nueva Prosperina, Sur and Esteros, the districts with the most murders in the first 15 days of 2023; Why is the violence concentrated in these places in Guayaquil?
Antisocials arrived there to shoot the husband and wife Diego V. and Génesis M., parents of the little girl, with rifles in hand, who were wounded and taken to nursing homes.
And although the murders committed without any reservation cause anxiety among the citizens, the same happens with the discovery of human remains, charred in some cases, that the criminal gangs leave on overpasses, as happened on January 8 on the Perimetral highway, the height of the structure at the entrance of line 21. A head was found there.
Or in the case of the three charred legs that the Police found on Tuesday, January 10, in a jute sack located outside the Tránsito Amaguaña Educational Unit, where classes were forcibly suspended and now parents are asking to end the school year. in the virtual modality due to the insecurity of that area.
Zone 8, made up of Guayaquil, Durán and Samborondón, has practically seen the number of homicides double in the first fifteen days of this year in relation to the same period of 2022. From the 1st to the 15th of the current year, this jurisdiction registered 80 crimes.
Until now, most of them are concentrated in the Nueva Prosperina district, which until Monday morning had 34 violent deaths, including the passenger of the bus on line 32 and a motorcyclist. It is the most contentious division, but not the only one. They are followed by the Sur and Esteros districts with 13 and 7 crimes, respectively, until the morning of Sunday the 15th.
Security experts consulted by this newspaper believe that the upsurge in criminal violence in these fifteen days could be linked, among other factors, to the seizure of drugs by drug gangs, including international ones, which have cells and armed forces in the country.
According to official figures, during 2022, 201 tons of drugs were seized in the national territory, and seizures in ports such as Guayaquil increased by 42%. While in 2021 54 tons were seized, the previous year they managed to detect and prohibit the passage of 77 tons.
The previous period, according to the National Police, 12,760 people were arrested for the crime of international drug trafficking and micro-trafficking. To this is added the confiscation of 1,008 firearms.
Two possible causes
Alexandra Zumárraga, former national director of Social Rehabilitation and researcher on issues related to organized crime, argued that large drug seizures generate a certain conflict between criminal gangs. Some attribute to others a kind of “sapeo” (collaborating with information with the police) or the theft of these substances.
“So, this means a lot of loss, a lot of millions in losses, so obviously these revenges are going to take place abroad, in the streets,” she said.
These murders occur to some extent in neighborhoods where there is a lot of drug use
Alexandra Zumárraga, researcher on issues related to organized crime
But there is also an obvious struggle for territory, he stressed, and that is why in many of the homicides the victims turn out to be those with extensive criminal records. “These murders occur to a certain extent in neighborhoods where there is a lot of drug use,” said the specialist.
And it is that in this fight for physical space to win the territory one of the groups has to prevail at the cost of the lives of their opponents.
Zumárraga pointed out that what is critical about this situation is that more and more minors are involved and there are more collateral victims. For this reason, he added, it is urgent that the Government implement primary crime prevention policies.
“The lack of social investment by the State in prevention in education, health, drug prevention. And while it is obvious that there are people who die with a criminal record, which could be, as I said, due to revenge or perhaps due to crimes or drug seizures, there are also collateral deaths, of people who have absolutely nothing to do with it,” the researcher remarked. .
Nelson Yépez, a specialist in security issues, also believes that the current scenario corresponds to a “war between gangs”, since each one wants to consolidate its territory and subdue the other. But he also lamented the existence of collateral victims in the midst of this situation.
President Guillermo Lasso shows the faces of alleged assassins of the leader of Los Ceibos, Javier Rosero
“The level of violence is already rising, because it doesn’t matter where the person is, where the target is, it doesn’t matter where it is, they (antisocials) simply have to fulfill a mission and they have to fulfill it,” he said.
The other origin of the current violence, he said, would be the blow to criminal economies that each drug seizure entails.
“Somehow it is also noticeable that the Police attack the export of drugs, every time the Police seize drugs, violent deaths are attacked. Over there we are seeing that they have two origins: the first is the one who wants to govern and subdue the other, and the other origin, the seizure of drugs,” Yépez commented. (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.
