In our everyday language, the word crisis has become relevant. We use it to denote the current situation in the country, we say that we are in an economic crisis, a political crisis, a security crisis, in short, that the country is in crisis, in a serious situation that threatens development, democracy and even the lives of citizens. In these circumstances, uncertainty causes the most fear, and we are looking for a solution that would have to start from identifying the source and the culprits.

In this search, there is a risk of equating crime with poverty, which is dangerous and unfair.

There are certainly poor people who commit crimes in the same way as others who do not, and it is not fair to say or think that the poor, in general and in the plural, are criminals. And it is dangerous because identifying crime with the poor further reduces their opportunities for personal development, since such an understanding creates distrust and closes the door to incredible chances to get a job or graduate from high school. Sometimes they only have despair because they cannot support their families and succumb to the temptation of easy money, because as I once read on a wall in Quito: “Hunger is hereditary.”

The exit from the crisis is good or bad, and our country is at that crossroads, so it is necessary to guess the right measures to be taken. Some of them are talked about a lot: the police should be trained and equipped and their numbers should be increased; more prisons must be built and managed better; justice must be achieved where honest judges have no price; economic development in order to create as many sources of work as possible, but little is said about the need to achieve equal opportunities for everyone and this is urgent, because even if the goal has now been achieved, the criminals have already created a school and, even if you don’t understand, the course of each person’s life and their position in society depend on circumstances. It is not difficult to understand if we put ourselves in the place of the disenfranchised.

The exit from the crisis is good or bad, and our country is at that crossroads, so it is necessary to guess the right measures to be taken.

Did I ever think that if my parents didn’t have jobs and education, I probably wouldn’t be talking to you from these pages, but wandering the streets selling empanadas, fruit, hats, anything that would allow me to survive, risking being taken away by slaves and they kick me out of the place because they have to take care of the appearance of the city and suffer bad behavior and contempt from passers-by or maybe sell cigarettes in front of the school.

In our country, in poor neighborhoods, there are a lot of lost talents because they did not have the opportunity to develop their skills and abilities, and for this reason, we must add to the proposed solutions the creation of opportunities so that children and young people do not become crime multipliers. Art and sport are suitable paths and in order to achieve this, the work of official institutions, universities, unions, artists, volunteers, non-governmental organizations, foundations is needed. All. (OR)