Guayaquil has not received vehicle plates since September 2021, which makes traffic control difficult and contributes to insecurity

In the year 2021 in Guayaquil there were 528 vehicle retentions, divided into 377 motorcycles and 151 cars, a figure that the Traffic and Mobility Agency (ATM) describes as “ridiculous” compared to the number of vehicles and motorcycles that circulate in the city without plates due to deficiencies in the delivery of the same by the competent entity, which is the National Transit Agency (ANT).

“Since September, Guayaquil has not received plates, which has meant that, to date, 13,510 motorcycles and 12,300 cars have been registered that circulate around the city and the country without physical metal plates, which in many cases makes it impossible to apply sanctions. and it makes it easier to evade the controls carried out by the ATM”, says the manager of the entity, Roberto Ricaurte.

But not only traffic control is evaded, but also that of the Police, who also complain about the impossibility of identifying the owners of vehicles when they do not have license plates. In addition, citizens register daily the circulation of vehicles without their respective identification.

These offenses are also committed by cars at the service of the State, which violates President Guillermo Lasso’s provision that every vehicle can be identifiable.

General Víctor Araus, in his brief stint at the security desk of the Municipality of Guayaquil, before rejoining the Police, stated that the lack of license plates is a major problem that contributes to insecurity in this city, where crimes are committed every day. assaults, kidnappings and murders using vehicles without license plates.

“Within its powers, the ATM must enforce ordinances such as two people not circulating on a motorcycle; do not allow the circulation of vehicles without license plates, with anti-solar films, which most of the time are used to commit crimes,” Araus told this medium.

But the issuance of plates does not depend on the Guayaquil entity, but on the ANT, whose director, Adrián Castro, said in July of last year that municipalities such as Guayaquil, Quito, Cuenca or Manta will soon would be able to issue license plates, when acknowledging that the ANT license plate factory “is not capable of supplying the national demand”.

In the middle of last year, when Castro took office, he toured the factory and told this outlet that they found “plates that have not been delivered to the GADs (decentralized autonomous governments) since 2018.”

A retired sergeant from the Armed Forces in Durán got tired of waiting for the new license plates of his car, which had gone from an executive taxi to a car for private use. Every 90 days, for two years, he had to renew a provisional paper, until he sold it. The new owner is still waiting for the license plates “that must come from Quito”, they tell him in his city of residence.

What is missing for municipalities to issue their own license plates?

“Since that announcement, in July of last year, we have not known the progress that materializes the prevailing need for the transfer of competition so that Guayaquil can issue and deliver plates in a timely manner as demanded by citizens,” says Ricaurte.

“A vehicle or a motorcycle without license plates constitutes an open door to impunity, both in traffic offenses and in criminal behavior that threatens the property and life of our citizens,” adds the ATM manager, who precisely toured the plate installations of the ANT, invited by Castro last July.

In that month, according to Castro, for new vehicle license plates, 21,000 remained to be delivered; for new motorcycles, more than 135,000; for duplicate license plates for vehicles, whether due to loss or theft, we had a non-delivery of 53,000 pairs and for duplicates for motorcycles, another 5,000 plates. All of this at the national level.

But those figures have increased, according to the Ecuadorian Automotive Association (AEA), led by Jaime Cucalón.

He corroborates the information provided by the ATM. “For new cars they have not given us plates since September, the last ones we received were in August 2021.”

According to Cucalón, there are currently 400,000 leftover plates from previous years, to which are added those that are missing for some 50,000 new cars that have been sold nationally since September, when they have ceased to be issued.

“It is easier to control, for traffic and safety, a few cars without license plates than hundreds of thousands without them,” says the leader of the dealers’ union in Guayas, who also complains that customers are charged an item for that material, but they don’t deliver it.

Thus, cars that are not new camouflage themselves among the 2,000 that are sold each month in Guayaquil, according to figures from the AEA, and that do not have license plates.

What is the penalty for those who drive cars and motorcycles without license plates?

In accordance with the provisions of the Guayaquil ordinances, the sanction amounts to a fine of a unified basic salary ($ 425) and the retention of the vehicle for seven days. In the case of recidivism, the sanction is two basic salaries ($ 850) and the retention of the vehicle for fourteen days.

For vehicles that do not have license plates for various reasons, provisional license plate certificates are issued by the municipalities, says the ANT. In article 121 of resolution 008 DIR 2017, it is stated that in cases where metallic delivery is not possible, a provisional one will be granted by exception. But there are already too many cars without identifying themselves on the streets.

Why the delay in the ANT? This medium wanted to consult it with its authorities, but the communication area has offered an interview for the next few days and expects to have exact figures on the plate deficit in the country.

However, the entity has expressed that the computer attacks have reduced its operational capacity, but there has been no information about the transfer of license plate issuance competence to the municipalities, something that is stated in the approved reform to the Traffic Law since last year.

By decongesting the issuance of license plates and licenses for Guayaquil, Quito and other GADs that can do so, the ANT will be able to serve smaller municipalities that still do not have the operational capacity for that, director Castro offered six months ago, without that having been materialized so far, as the manager of the ATM says. (I)