The massacre that occurred last Saturday in a Daule urbanization has raised concerns about what controls can be carried out to prevent antisocials from renting or buying houses in private residential complexes that later become crime scenes such as drug collection, kidnapping or murder. .
The multiple crime in which five people were murdered, including a minor, caused concern among the residents of this urbanization located on León Febres-Cordero avenue.
It is not the only urbanization where it has happened and that is why there are those who assure that this situation even affects the surplus value in certain sectors.
Despite the discomfort of the residents and the distrust that there is now regarding “who lives in the house next door”, there is little that the administrators or the residents of the urbanizations themselves can do.
This situation is due to the fact that the owners of the houses can only be asked to be careful when renting and selling, but it is not possible to put restrictions, says Guillermo Ayala, who for years was in charge of the Federation of urbanizations from the road to the coast.
He maintains that years ago they had some problems in various groups in that sector, precisely because of this issue.
There was even a protest for a rental to people who were protected witnesses in a drug trafficking case and who had to remain under house arrest in the urbanization.
380,000 dollars in cash and three pairs of car license plates found in the house of a former police officer murdered in the Daule urbanization
Criminal lawyer Julio César Cueva says that it is not possible to prohibit a person with a criminal record or conviction for a crime from buying or renting a house, that this could incur discrimination and that it is unconstitutional.
“That would be an illegal interference in the exercise of the right of one of the attributes of property, which is free disposal,” explains the lawyer.
What many urbanizations have done in their internal regulations is to prohibit the rental of a house for occasional lodging (on the Airbnb platform) because there were cases in which “guests” arrived for two or three days to the closed complexes or buildings to enter to rob the neighbors when they went to work.
That happened in a building where Cueva lived a few years ago. The residents told the owner of the apartment that they were going to sue him for the lost objects and that dynamic ended, says the lawyer.
But when it comes to selling, the issue is more complicated. Only construction companies or real estate companies analyze the buyer’s profile to try to maintain a certain status in the citadels.
The problem comes when that first owner is going to sell his property. There is nothing to stop you from selling it to someone with a criminal record or convictions.
Drug collection, kidnappings and murders, crimes that disturbed the tranquility in certain private urbanizations
“Here the sellers become silent accomplices,” says the president of the Association of Notaries of Guayas, Humberto Moya, who says that there are times when a house valued at $100,000 is bought for $150,000.
The seller then returns the $50,000 to the buyer. They are already laundering money there.
The union representative clarified that in this sense, notaries exercise some control and that every month they issue reports to the Financial and Economic Analysis Unit (UAFE) of the Prosecutor’s Office. If this report is not issued, the notary can be dismissed, he remarks.
The UAFE must review any transaction greater than $10,000 to verify that it is made with funds obtained lawfully.
The problem, says lawyer Julio César Cueva, is that UAFE would not have a software that is connected with the Property Registry and with the banks so that an immediate alert is issued.
He has been saying for a long time that if this system were updated and the human factor was strengthened, money laundering could be combated, which occurs mainly with the purchase of properties.
“I am alive, they have supplanted my identity,” says a man from Quito who was announced as the victim of a multiple murder in the Daule urbanization
The notary Humberto Moya says that he has seen cases in which a person with an income of $700, who lives in a popular area, arrives to try to buy a $200,000 house in an urbanization with cash.
That is an alert and they are immediately made to fill out a form and the UAFE is notified so that they can investigate them, he says.
In the case that occurred last weekend in Daule, it was mentioned that the purchase took place recently and that $120,000 was paid in cash for the property where the multiple murder occurred.
Cueva adds that when taking this money to the bank, the seller must justify which property was sold and to whom and that the bank also sends a report to the UAFE to investigate the transaction. It’s called a suspicious activity report. (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.
