The drug trade and its dire consequences loom over Ecuador. Disappearance is not an option, nor is it an option to be a smaller country than we already are: money laundering is said to reach $3.5 billion, 3 GDP, of which 75% goes into the formal economy. Meanwhile, per capita income is the same as 10 years ago; 66% of the economically active population does not have adequate employment; scandalous for human dignity, just under 5 million people have a daily income of $3, 2 million less than $1.7.

“Exodus of the Damned”

Hundreds of prisoners have been killed in prison massacres since February 2021. Since then, previous governments have been unable to stop the bloodshed, as if these lives did not matter and after each massacre they falsely announced that they had already taken control of the prisons. close . In the decree by which the current president of the republic declared a state of emergency, it is mentioned that the UN body, after visiting Ecuador, reported that corruption allowed the entry of weapons into the mentioned places and what is worse, the influence of transnational organized crime was established in the police, judicial , political and military sphere. The president said that the leader of a powerful criminal group, who escaped from his cell, was freely in and out of it in the last two governments.

A state of emergency was imposed on January 8 due to serious internal unrest. Citizens are aware of the serious quantitative and qualitative crime rate in the country, which is on the rise. However, as LODDH, the Alliance of Organizations for the Defense of Human Rights of Ecuador, points out, the repeated states of emergency that declared the mobilization of the armed forces were ineffective because they did not respond to a comprehensive plan for the security of citizens, transferring violence in prisons to the national territory, especially in the poorest sectors , with the complicity of the state. And the National Police has not been purged, as recommended by the aforementioned UN body.

On January 9, the president declared by decree the existence of an “internal armed conflict”, because on that day several crimes were committed, especially in Guayaquil, including the attack on TC Televisión, which casts more doubt than certainty: 15 teenagers ready to do something So, they were thrown like guinea pigs to a very protected place, where they could easily enter and be easily caught, among other shadows. The head of state requested that Teleamazonas be investigated for broadcasting the footage. Where is the freedom of the press, the need for transparency, is the government hiding something?

The LODDH points out that the declaration of an internal armed conflict leaves deep doubts about the reasonableness and insufficient motivation, which concerns the absence of guarantees for the rights of the uninitiated population or beneficiaries of crime. He says, rightly, that it is wrong to identify organized crime groups as non-state war actors, since conceptually, due to their ideological basis and political purposes, they are not identified with them and leaves the public force “infiltrated by organized crime or not” the discretion of classification terrorist.

It has been warned that it is false positives, this, in Colombia, recognized by the army that committed them in exchange for rewards, took the lives of thousands of peasants in Uribe’s government, who were portrayed as victims of the fight against the guerrillas. It’s not hyperbole, tattooed people were detained and interrogated here. The poor, black and young people are frequent victims of police excesses. As for the prisoners, despite the fact that the presidential decree considers their rights, they are still victims of mistreatment, which has been condemned by their relatives and human rights organizations. The bishop of Esmeraldas told the president about such abuses and that one of the detainees was beaten and killed.

In the next part, we will see other responses from President Noboa, the judicial branch and the population to the status quoalternative solutions and… a mirror. (OR)