The actions resulting from the declaration that Ecuador is in an internal armed conflict are carried out non-stop, but it should not be expected that the problem, which is several years old, will be solved in two months. It will probably be a long and difficult road, but not impossible.

Today we have to face the facts: extortions, kidnappings, murders, destruction of property, robberies, explosions, challenges to the authorities, corruption in institutions; and it must be done decisively and professionally and within what the law allows. But, furthermore, despite the repeated saying that the past is the past and that we do not look back, we must do so if we want to build the future, because what is happening has causes, roots from the past that remain in the present and will continue tomorrow. If decisions are not made today that will eliminate them forever.

The storm will pass

Just as today we seek unity to eliminate organized crime, we also need to root out the causes that allowed crime, cruelty and contempt for life to take root in our country. It will not be easy either, because some of these causes are, unfortunately, in the social, economic, political and cultural structure.

The necessary changes require a lot, we just need to look beyond our individual reality and our particular interests: hungry families, children without school, the elderly without protection, adults without work, the sick without medicine, climbing politicians of particular and party interests, bribed and bribed, some judges without respecting justice, accepting people for what they have and not for what they are. In short, the door is open for illegitimate money and its destructive consequences to be comfortably accommodated. No one noticed? No one saw?

State, politics and war

This is not recent, the seed took hold, spread and covered the fundamental areas of the state like a climbing plant. Along the way, she found reality and offered easy money, expanded her branches to weaken institutions and painted a paradise for those who have nothing, many of whom risk their lives and the lives of others, live in shock, run away, hide, acquire property .. and obeying orders, and whose final fate, many times, is death at the hands of a rival in an illegal business, imprisonment, or continued flight.

It is urgent that, as a decision was made to eradicate the events that are destroying the state and there is a joint work of the forces of order and the majority support of the citizens, a group in charge of proposing an appropriate strategy and coordinating a joint task, including civil society institutions, should be determined in order to initiate a change that offers a better quality of life for everyone. As soon as possible, now.

We need to prevent the seeds from re-igniting, update the preparation of teachers to achieve the values ​​education we talk about so much, and why not rethink the School for Parents? And while the young are getting ready, we are all working to lay the foundations of a new state, in which there is no place for the aforementioned reality and no fertile ground for dishonesty, crime and contempt for life. (OR)