Providing a safe environment is one of the duties of every state. For this purpose, there is a police force that strives to maintain order and protect the property of every citizen. According to the UN recommendation, almost three police officers are needed for every 1,000 inhabitants. However, not all countries can afford the costs required to maintain such resources and their operations; since these functions entail the design of public policies, cultural and economic agreements and global infrastructure that connects territories, under the umbrella of the state.

The failed prison system in Ecuador

In the Ecuadorian case, the shortage of policemen has always been a constant, therefore in several inter-Andean areas rural communities – they were organized from earlier times – into Peasant Defense Councils. Already advanced in the Republic, the government of Velasco Ibarra recognized its actions and in recent decades the Ecuadorian state made agreements with the Juntas to support its security control.

The ability to organize and be accountable to their societies is part of the charm of Peasant Defense Councils; these organizations can be strengthened and promoted to operate where the state is held back by real forces, such as those of criminal groups. It is not unreasonable to think that peasant defense committees will be provided with economic means to deepen their actions and that the creation of neighborhood defense committees will be promoted to strengthen the security of citizens.

Extortion exacerbates insecurity

However, organizing social bodies to carry out police protection actions has political obstacles, but above all cultural obstacles. For it is cultural understandings that drive the will; The term ‘police’ comes from the Greek word polis, which means city and state; Therefore, where there is a policeman, there is also the state. However, in societies tainted by corruption, the police do not avoid public suspicion, and as a result, mistrust destroys the structure of social cooperation.

Mistrust characterized by corruption is accompanied by a focus on the well-being of the individual, which weighs heavily on us, because no one interferes with individualism, because what matters is what is directly affected; This is how good or bad is judged depending on how close the consequence is to the family core. Reasons why opportunities to organize based on the welfare of the neighborhood, city or state are small.

Anti-corruption and political will

It is time to learn from rural areas that have managed to survive the impossibility of state police coverage and where well-being and the collective eye manage to bring relative safety to their environments. In this framework, we have much to learn from indigenous rural areas that monitor, apprehend and, in some cases, punish those who cause harm in the community.

Since traditional formulas of control and security have not worked, perhaps our Andean cultural roots can give us the light to organize examples of neighborhood and community defense. (OR)