It ended January 2023, in Ecuador, with 66% more violent deaths than in 2022, according to El Comercio on February 22 of this year, basically caused by the dispute over the territory for the micro-trafficking of drugs and the dominance of the areas where crimes are committed

On March 2, this newspaper reported the following: “In the first 58 days of 2023, 945 intentional murders were registered throughout the country… If we follow this daily average, we will end the year with almost six thousand intentional crimes, including murders, murder, femicide and assassination…”.

Crime of this style is an attack and spread of terror with all possible weapons, without respect for anything and anyone. And that is that, precisely, our country has become a no-man’s land, suitable for drug trafficking, drug laundering, money laundering, extortion of all kinds and amounts, corruption in public spheres, where green cards and bribes have their networks in almost the entire administration.

So much so that when the official wants to eliminate these “privileges” they kill them. Because crime includes not only violent acts, but also white-collar and gold-collar crime, which is more deadly than robbery or street assault. The frightening figures of corruption are in the millions. And all this under the impressive cloak of impunity that is produced even by the legislator himself.

The penalties are small, and the processes are favorable for criminals of all kinds. Added to this is the negligence, irresponsibility and buying of conscience with punishments or alternative measures, which enable the escape of criminals, on the part of individual justice workers, for whom, sometimes, criminals also apply the term “silver or lead”.

On the other hand, prisons are full of people who have no possibility of rehabilitation. Organized crime is also controlled from there.

We cannot describe the insecurity and fear we all experience in Ecuador, nor the anxiety and exasperation we experience when we feel so unprotected. There is no justice here. Instead we have wild predators who come to assume certain positions to satisfy their egos and fill the coffers of themselves and their minions.

And what causes such a high level of violence? Distancing from investments, which entails a lack of work, a small recovery of the economy, poverty and an increase in crime. That is, a vicious circle of hell.

“Crime creates losses of $3 billion a year and drives away investors. The country could grow 3% more every year if the level of insecurity is reduced, reported (La Hora October 20, 2021)”. And we continue to make losses…

Only clean and hard hands could put such an accident in order, with the conviction, moreover, that human rights must protect first the honest ones, and finally those who, in one way or another, drain our lives. In the meantime, we will continue to be in the hands of the underground. (OR)