The Government of Ecuador, overwhelmed by citizen insecurity, declared the state of emergency throughout the national territory and shielded the public force (police and military) to exercise actions against crime.
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso, declared on Monday the state of emergency for sixty days before what he considered "serious internal commotion" due to the "increase in criminal activity", especially in provinces where statistics warn of a crime rebound.
In provinces such as gold, Guayas, Santa Elena, Manabí, Los Ríos, Esmeraldas, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Pichincha and Sucumbíos (border with Colombia), the mobilization of military was available to complement police actions.
In those locations, the action of the forces of order will feel "strongly in the streets," said Lasso, who detailed actions such as arms controls, drug trafficking, inspections and constant patrols of agents of the order.
The president, who complemented his executive decision with a message to the nation, announced the creation of a unit of legal protection of the public force, responsible for defending police or military who can be demanded within the framework of security actions.
The exceptional measure "aims to control the circumstances that have been generated, restoring peaceful coexist and public order", precise the executive decree.
The government order occurred in the midst of a surge of crimes, resounded by the media, which on a daily basis report violent crimes, especially in the coastal city of Guayaquil and other neighboring areas.
The military, according to the decree, "at all times they will act in coordination with the police", in charge of citizen security, under the principles of "exceptionality, need, proportionality and humanity", and with attachment to the rules of "progressive use of the force".
"In the streets of Ecuador there is only one enemy, drug trafficking", which is the engine of other criminal activities, Lasso said in his message to the nation pronounced in parallel to the Executive Decree.
The ruler recalled that Ecuador has been cataloged as a traffic country of drug trafficking, but pointed out that this activity has also generated an increase in domestic consumption of narcotic substances.
This increase in consumption also looks at a large number of crimes denounced daily, added the president by putting as an example that only in the province of Guayas, whose capital is Guayaquil, more than 70% of violent crimes are related to the drug traffic.
Therefore, the National Security Plan that has designed by the Government has included the exception status for sixty days, but it also supposes measures to protect members from the Public Force.
"We will create the legal defense unit of the Public Force, an entity that will be dedicated exclusively to the protection of all those members of the police or the armed forces that are defendant to fulfill their duty," he explained.
According to Lasso, "the law should intimidate the delinquent not to the police", and therefore its government will indicate all those agents who have been "unfairly condemned" by this type of actions.
The Government, consequently, will send to the National Assembly (Parliament) a new bill to support law enforcement agents, the ruler added.
The regime wants to unite all forces of order with a single mission, "Return security to citizens" and carry "the battle to the Hampa wherever it hides".
After insisting that the lack of opportunities in the country has pushed young people to drug use, he said that an inter-institutional committee of all social front ministries and the Ministry of Human Rights will be formed, to prevent, stop addiction and reinsert Consumers in society.
"We want a safe equator to live calm", since "without security there is no development" and to achieve that goal, a coordinated work of the whole society is required to "overcome the common enemy," Lasso stressed.
Date Of Update: 20 October 2021, 09:21
