Violent deaths and robberies increased this year in coastal provinces that now have military control

Insecurity in the country has reached levels that concern not only citizens but also the authorities. Massacres in prisons, murders in broad daylight, armed robberies, theft of vehicles and drug distribution are, among others, the problems that are evident in several provinces.

To curb the crime boom, the Government decreed a state of emergency nationwide for 60 days. The measure was announced on October 18, a day after in Guayaquil, Guayas, an 11-year-old boy died in an ice cream parlor during a bullet crossing between an assailant and a policeman.

The event shocked the country. It was then arranged that the Armed Forces join the work of the National Police in the streets, especially in nine provinces: Guayas, El Oro, Santa Elena, Manabí, Los Ríos, Esmeraldas, Pichincha, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and Succumb.

This newspaper exposes today the most recurrent crimes in the provinces of the Coast. In these months, in Manabí, for example, 40 areas conducive to the clandestine landing of light aircraft allegedly related to drug trafficking were detected.

State of exception: Guillermo Lasso tells police officers that the government supports them and will assume their legal defense

A few days before the end of the tenth month of the year, in this province the number of violent deaths has already exceeded the record of 2020. Between January 1 and October 21 of this year there were 159 murders, while last year there were They gave 121 crimes.

That is, about 70 days after the end of this year there is a 30% increase in violent deaths compared to 2020.

Patricia Briones, president of the Manabí Civic Front, indicates that there must be the support of the Government, companies and also citizens to improve the work of the police, who currently patrol the streets of this province together with the military.

The former mayor of Portoviejo believes that the police should be helped with tools, so that security improves. He considers it necessary to reinforce police work, even more so when the business sector increases its work at Christmas and the end of the year.

Lucía Fernández, president of the Manta Inter-institutional Civic Committee, believes that police officers should also be supported with laws that allow them to have authority in the face of a confrontation with antisocials.

“Starting with new laws that determine that the police have authority over the offender, because currently the one who has authority is the offender and not the police. He could hardly ask the police to act if his actions as such are not guaranteed first, because he does not have the authority, he does not have any backing, they are poorly made laws, a new Security Law must be created ”, proposes the leader.

Thefts from motorcycles and cars have increased, for example, between January 1 and October 15, 2020, 274 motorcycles and 203 cars were stolen in the province; In the same period of 2021, 377 motorcycles and 335 cars were stolen, that is, the theft of these means of transport increased between 38% and 65%, in their order.

Also the assaults on economic units or commercial premises have risen in Manabí. According to the statistics of the Police, in this province from January 1 to October 15 of last year they attacked 182 locals, while in the same period of 2021 the assaults reached 212, with an increase of 16% between one year and other.

The situation in El Oro

So far this year the crimes of robbery and violent deaths are the most recurrent in the province of El Oro.

From January 1 to the second half of October 2021, 1,003 robberies were registered, in 2020 779 cases were reported. “In the crime of robbery, there is a legal norm that allows a reparation agreement, but this person falls back (detained) with a long record,” says Major Wilson Narváez, chief of the province’s Judicial Police.

On Wednesday night, an alleged armed criminal was detained by a group of people on Pasaje and Santa Rosa streets, in the center of Machala, when he tried to rob a woman. Minutes later, two more suspects were arrested, the three arrested have a history of robbery, possession of weapons and drug trafficking.

As evidence, a 38 caliber firearm, three ammunition and the same number of cell phones were retained.

The number of violent deaths, so far this year, reached 116, above the 66 registered in 2020. The mayor Narváez refers that the figures for the previous year are relatively low and are attributed to the validity of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Most of the homicides are selective in El Oro (power struggles between criminals), then single-person homicides (debts, skirts problems) followed, and selective ones (who are victims of common crime)”, he says. the police chief, and adds that five organizations have been identified in the province that seek to dominate certain territories.

Three of these criminal groups settle in Machala. In the case of Huaquillas, there is a struggle between two groups made up of Ecuadorians and foreigners who seek to take control of the clandestine border crossings.

Since the validity of the state of exception in El Oro there is coordination between the chiefs of the Police, Army and Navy to locate permanent teams in the points considered red in Machala and the rest of the province.

The public force group plans to carry out a weekly evaluation of the strategies in order to achieve favorable results for the security of the population. In addition, in the next few hours, high command officers of the Police will arrive to follow up on the joint work that the executive decree authorizes.

Los Ríos, one of the most conflictive jurisdictions

Quevedo is the canton of Los Ríos that registers the highest number of violent deaths, according to Police figures there are already more than 48 crimes so far this year.

Due to the high rate of criminal acts in this city, on October 7, the mayor of the city, John Salcedo, asked President Guillermo Lasso to declare a state of exception in the canton.

In this town on October 6 there was a riot at the rehabilitation center. The Police say that the revolt was due to a fight in which two people deprived of liberty were injured.

In addition, it reports that after the fight, ten inmates requested transfer to other prisons, because they supposedly feared for their integrity. Request that has already been granted by the authorities.

In that riot, relatives of the wounded inmates indicate that the conflict was supposedly generated by a fight between criminal gangs made up of members of Los Choneros and Lobos.

Regarding these statements, Stalin Espinoza, director of the Center for Social Rehabilitation, responds that it was a slight fight.

With the state of exception declared in the prisons of the country, the rehabilitation centers of Quevedo and Babahoyo are kept protected, on the outside, by personnel of the Armed Forces.

At the provincial level, Los Ríos has 131 cases of violent deaths so far this year, according to police figures.

“In Los Ríos there are six districts where military and police personnel are deployed. These are the cantons Babahoyo, Quevedo, Puebloviejo, Ventanas, Buena Fe and Valencia. Before this new declaration of exception, the cantons of Babahoyo, Puebloviejo and Quevedo were already intervened, however, the crime and delinquency rates continue to rise ”, says Colonel William Martínez, from the Los Ríos sub-zone No. 12.

In general, these events, according to the police, occur because the criminal organizations that lead in the province dispute the territory for the sale of micro-trafficking of substances subject to control

The police chief refers that common crime is another of the crimes that keeps the population of Rio de Janeiro in distress. The increase in crime in this province is 20% compared to 2020, which was an atypical year, due to confinement due to the pandemic.

“The rate of increase in crimes in this province is 13.40% per 100,000 inhabitants. As for robberies, the most common are assaults, thefts of vehicles and motorcycles, as well as extortion of business owners, cases reported in Babahoyo ”, says Colonel Martínez.

Motorcycle robberies, the most recurrent in Santa Elena

Armed robbery committed by two people on a motorcycle is the most common crime in the province of Santa Elena. On public roads, business premises and even those inside their vehicles have been the most recent victims of crime.

Although not all cases are formally reported, they are made known to the media and on social media. One of the recent assaults by motorists occurred at approximately 08:30 the previous Thursday in the Cooresa 2 sector, Salinas canton.

In videos, it is observed that three men arrive on a motorcycle, get out and assault several people who were outside a store and others who remained in the car.

Another assault took place on Wednesday night, in a restaurant located in the 25 de Septiembre neighborhood of La Libertad canton. Its owner, Vidal Pozo, said that a man on a motorcycle and two on foot arrived with a firearm to steal. The owner of the premises had his cell phone stolen, $ 50 obtained from the sale of food; and a client was taken with her wallet with her personal belongings.

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Shortly after, Genaro Gellibert, radio communicator Genial, was a victim of crime in the Amantes de Sumpa sector, in the Santa Elena canton. The young man explained that he was inside the car parked in the sector, when he was surprised by two men on a motorcycle who opened the door of the vehicle, raked the gun to his head and stole his belongings.

Another citizen report, from that same Wednesday, alerted an employee of a home delivery company to the assault, near the José Luis Tamayo Community Police Unit (UPC), in Salinas.

With the state of exception in force, since Tuesday the military presence in the streets of the province of Santa Elena increased. On that day, the contingent of the Motorized Infantry Battalion (Bimot) Marañón, stationed in La Libertad, mobilized towards the rural areas of the Peninsula and another platoon of 100 soldiers deployed to various points identified as critical and problematic in said locality to carry out the controls, records and requisitions in cases of carrying weapons and substances subject to control.

On Thursday morning, in a joint operation carried out in the La Libertad market, substances subject to control, pipes, knives and other bladed weapons were seized. (I)