“Silver or Lead”. This famous phrase attributed to Pablo Escobar sums up the modus operandi of drug lords when dealing with the police, prosecutors and judges: “take our bribes or see.”

Ecuador today is almost no different from Pablo Escobar’s Colombia. Criminal groups have effectively replaced the authority of the state in various places, subjugating the citizenry and consolidating their power through terror. Our nation faces an unprecedented danger, which threatens to destroy the foundations of our republic and reduce us to the slaves of drug traffickers and gangsters. But the war is not lost. Our law enforcement forces can still stand up to crime, and the work our armed forces have done in Esmeraldas in recent weeks confirms that things are still unresolved. The forces of peace and democracy can still prevail.

crime wins

However, there is a very clear weak spot in this bitter war that we urgently need to cover: our anemic justice system. And that is that there is little or no benefit from our police and army literally rushing to the defense if a corrupt judge from who knows where frees the mafia leader with the stroke of a pen. The recent release of the name of Elbi, the leader of Los Tiguerones, is just another example of this shameful pattern.

lives behind bars

But without intending to defend the judges responsible for these atrocities, the truth is that if we remember the logic of “silver or lead” we realize that their options are limited. What should a referee do when faced with the nickname Elbi or the nickname Fito? Do we really expect him to do a heroic act and refuse the gift? And there is the root of the problem: until we have a system that guarantees the safety of judges and their families, it will not be possible to get out of this vicious circle.

Criminal groups have effectively replaced state authority in several places…

Solving this problem is difficult, but not impossible. Today’s technology opens up possibilities that simply did not exist in Pablo Escobar’s Colombia. Here is a specific proposal, which I have already mentioned on another occasion: to create a department of judges with sole and exclusive jurisdiction in matters of drug trafficking, murderers and terrorism. That these judges also have exclusive jurisdiction to issue precautionary measures and the infamous habeas corpus. News? That these judges solve these cases remotely from other countries, where they and their relatives enjoy protection and the mafia cannot extort them. In reality, these judges do not necessarily have to be Ecuadorians, but can be foreign lawyers of recognized integrity, who decide these cases from their own countries. In the last case, if all that was not enough, technology would even enable their anonymization, turning them into so-called “faceless judges”.

Ecuador needs such radical reforms to defeat the drug trade. Time is short. Will our political class have the courage and commitment to carry them out? (OR)