In a city convulsed by the activity of organized crime and common crime, vigilantes devise methods to reduce risks during days.
Pedro hears the engine of a diesel pickup slowly entering the parking lot of a citadel. The man who works as an independent guard is on alert. Spot three individuals inside the car. He leaves his resting place to be noticed by strangers. He takes his only weapon in his hand: a whistle, which, in some way, serves to scare off thugs or warn neighbors about attempted theft of cars in the sector.
It’s 11:40 p.m. on Wednesday, November 10. A journalistic team travels through various areas of Guayaquil to record the testimonies of car attendants, who expose themselves to the risks of the night, in a city convulsed by the activity of organized crime and common crime.
“It was strange to see the truck. When I see an unknown car, I put batteries, because that’s how the crooks come to probe here. Between 01:00 and 6:00, cars without license plates and with two or three suspicious people pass by. First a car passes and after a few hours another one passes, which seems to be from the same band, but as they see me here they go to other parking lots ”, says Pedro, 54, who has been taking care of more than ten years with some suspicion. twenty vehicles in Sauces 6, a sector that belongs to the Modelo police district, one of the areas with the highest incidence of emergency reports of car theft in the city.
Last October, the Integrated Security System ECU-911 received 126 reports of car theft among the ten districts of the city: 34 corresponding to the Model jurisdiction; 21, Pascuales; 19, South; 17, Florida; 11, Esteros; 9, New Prosperina; October 7, 9; 5, Portete; 3, Ceibos; and no progress reports.
The incidence of the October reports experienced a slight increase compared to the events recorded in June, when there were 123 calls to alert such theft. In July, on the other hand, 136 calls were registered; and, in August, 132 were received. While in September, the aid platform attended 120 contacts.
The dangers for the wagons are always present. That worries Pedro’s wife and seven children, who are restless when he leaves Yaguachi for Guayaquil to do his job. As he tells his story, particularly when a gun was pointed at his head, Pedro follows with his gaze the figure of a young man with thin arms and loose clothing emerging from among the cars. Subject moves as if sleepwalking.
“He is an axman. At dawn thieves also pass by with things that they have been taking from houses or blocks ”, that’s what Pedro calls the collective houses that years ago became a battlefield for the gangs.
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A few weeks ago, a thief told him “you are a car or toad”, because the man has already prevented the theft from neighbors. These frictions increase his desire to change jobs, although he regrets that at his age the system closes its doors.
Pedro must return to his round. The truck that alarmed him is driving away; It is the one that moves the team of this newspaper and continues its journey. It is already early morning, and on the route that connects Los Sauces with various stages of La Alborada and Urdesa streets, in this last sector, a van and four hooded motorists from the National Police can be seen.
The cold invades the environment. The car attendants who are on the way to the center of Guayaquil already have their coat, sweater and balaclava on top. Some work alone. They walk from one end of the street or block to the other that they set aside to earn a few dollars, although their desire is to cover all their needs and pay for health insurance and social security affiliation, they say.
Others, on the other hand, work cooperatively. It is 02:00 on Thursday, November 11. In the perimeter formed by four streets of the center-south of Guayaquil, an apparent tranquility is perceived, although police sirens can be heard from nearby places. There are a dozen people who take care of more than 40 cars.
The journalistic team approaches four caregivers. Jorge, Luis and Miguel say hello. The fourth member keeps his eyes fixed on the other side of the road, as if he had detected something new. It does not blink and is colder than the rest. It is not flesh and blood. It’s a mannequin! Dressed in a rain poncho, he fools almost all drivers.
“We are a lot of guards here, so this is quiet. The dolls keep us company ”, says Luis, who places the mannequin every day next to a car and a year old in the doorway of his house, near there. He has been in the car care trade for more than five years.
The conductor of the journalistic team remembers having seen, some time ago, a year old of the children’s character Barney, with a sweater and a hat, in that sector. Luis tells that some guys shot him during a party and he was rendered useless.
“This is risky. Around here we see how they go by on a motorcycle shooting into the air, and they have thrown victims of express kidnapping, ”says the 60-year-old man, who loses his attention for a while when a Chinese-made motorcycle passes at high speed in which he carry two people.
Luis resumes the dialogue and highlights that the proceeds during the day and at night are distributed among the caregivers, who like Pedro —the guardian of Sauces 6— would like to have another work activity that does not consume them, because the “bad nights” The ones they have apparently gotten used to have taken a toll on their vitality.
The week in which the child was killed in an ice cream parlor there were reports of an armed person, five robberies of citizens, three car robberies, one gunshot wound, in the Centenario circuit
The dawn advances. However, in the south of the city, in Los Guasmos, the passage of suspicious vehicles, which have tinted windows, is notorious. On a main street in Guasmo Sur, Freddy takes care of two lines of cars. “Those cars pass through here, but one only sees, as it is not with us … On weekends this is hot more than anything,” says the 55-year-old man, referring to the presence of organized crime and the Struggle between gangs for drug trafficking areas: “As soon as we hear gunshots, we hide in cars.”
To this constant stress Freddy adds the workload he has in these weeks, since he has had to double shifts in the absence of his partner, who had his leg amputated due to diabetes.
Marcia, his partner, and a dog that is not his accompany him. The dog is called Pito and it remains in the central parterre of the main street. “It is not mine. Here he comes to accompany me because he knows that I will give him a bite ”, says Freddy.
The dog’s ears move with every noise heard in the early morning.
Neither Freddy nor Pito trust the people who walk around, because they could pose as recyclers when what they are looking for are the mirrors and radios of the vehicles, or the cars themselves. Neighbors who approach us tell us that in the area they take parked cars and then extort money from the owners to return them. (I)
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.
