Presidential announcement would support the actions of the uniformed, say interviewees, who also propose other solutions to the crime wave.
That it is necessary, and that there should have been from before, a unit that legally defends the public force (Police and Armed Forces) in their actions in service of the community and against crime, say experts consulted by this newspaper, after President Guillermo Lasso will decree, on the night of Monday 18, a new state of exception for 60 days in Ecuador, but this time due to “serious internal commotion” due to the increase in criminal activity.
There, on a national chain, he also announced that the called the Legal Defense Unit to the public force and that he will send to the National Assembly the draft Law on Defense of the Duty of the Public Force.
“Police officers must have a judicial unit that is always in defense of police action. Criminals and criminal organizations have their lawyer within the group, their head lawyer, their lawyer who despite the fact that they have committed their misdeeds comes out to defend him and distort the version, and I have had cases … (where) the offender goes to to say: I was passing by … the offender is legally advised to distort and totally deny any criminal activity ”, says John Garaycoa, polygraphist, specialized in security and president of a private security company in Guayaquil.
Comment that for a policeman or servant of the public force It represents too an economic item to spend on the legal defense of their performance, in addition to the formalities of the process and it even becomes a “traumatic problem” that both the uniformed man and his family have to go through. For this reason, he adds, there are those who prefer not to act.
But if they have this office or legal department that supports their actions as police officers when they have gone out to work in the service of society, they will feel more confident when acting against crime.
That’s 162 pencil sharpener rounds in 2021; the Police have arrested almost 100 suspects, but without complaints it is difficult to obtain sentences
For Mario Pazmiño, former director of Army Intelligence and expert in Security, Development and Defense, in addition to this “certain confidence” that the public force is going to be given to intervene, a legal regulation is necessary that allows “to make the progressive use of force and (that) support the public force to be able to use weapons for the benefit of Ecuadorian society ”.
But most importantly, he says, a structural problem that cannot be solved by a state of exception and that focuses on three fundamental factors, according to his analysis:
- Presence of international cartels and two protomafias.
- Presence of around ten mega-gangs that operate in prisons and other territorial spaces.
- Presence of “extremely high levels of corruption”, which has contaminated the entire social and governmental sphere.
Those factors affect the levels of violence and insecurity that Ecuador has, indicates the former head of military intelligence.
Child died in the middle of a confrontation between police and criminals in the Centenario neighborhood, in the south of Guayaquil
Garaycoa, the president of the private security company, also does not believe that regulations regarding the current ones will change with the issue of the legal use of the weapon. He considers that it is more an endorsement when they arrest the uniformed during their police action. And mention that currently no one, not even the police, can draw their weapon and shoot if these three joint circumstances are not met:
“One, when flagrante delicto exists. Two, when there is the progressive use of force. And three, when my life or that of my protégé or that of a citizen is at risk. But the three have to be together…. If one of those does not exist, the police officer or anyone who made the legal use of the weapon may be involved in the illegal use. What does that mean, if tomorrow a citizen snatches loot from him and the thief runs away, he cannot take out the gun and shoot him at that moment because the criminal is fleeing and his life is not at risk, regardless of stealing the booty… ”, explains Garaycoa.
How to combat crime and insecurity?
Mario Pazmiño, former Army Intelligence Chief, says that first a public security policy is needed that does not exist at the moment, as well as a comprehensive security planning of the State, which does not exist either. “This does not allow articulating the actions of the different institutions, there must be centralized planning and decentralized execution,” he explains.
He mentions that a meeting he had with President Lasso had proposed the creation of a joint task force for the Ecuadorian Littoral, similar to the joint task force of Esmeraldas, “which operated excellently in the face of an insecurity problem that arose before the terrorist attack in San Lorenzo, exactly this type of task force is necessary to apply it in the Ecuadorian coast, ”he explains.
And this force should be made up of the Armed Forces, the National Police, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Intelligence system, the Ombudsman’s Office and all of them, operatively articulated with the Joint Command, but on this Joint Command and this force, the Consepe, to that can administer and direct orders to combat two factors: organized crime and drug trafficking. And that’s just the Ecuadorian coast.
From there, for the central Ecuadorian problem, the solution is to change the laws, assures Pazmiño.
They wanted to kill two security guards at the Trinipuerto; they opened fire on them from a motorcycle
“It is necessary to change the laws that are creating a much more permeable society for organized crime and drug trafficking to take a position. Laws such as immigration law, the drug table, the situation of not having a demolition law or an intervention law to enforce national sovereignty, to name a few. On the other hand, it is necessary that we change the conception that exists at the time that the problem is only police, it is not like that. The National Police was overwhelmed a long time ago by organized crime and common crime, ”he asserts.
And he adds that it is also necessary to eliminate the control or patrol circuits or subcircuits that the uniformed officers have established at the moment.
“(A permanent deterrent presence is needed), (where) the army, the police, the metropolitan police intervene and, under appropriate selection, training and training, private security companies. So, with that, a force is formed that can make a presence 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a week…. The patrol has to be permanent, ”he insists. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
