QUITO_ He Congress of Ecuador voted this Thursday in favor of a constitutional reform that allows the Armed Forces to support the police in the fight against organized crime, amid a wave of violence linked to drug trafficking.
The unicameral National Assembly, with 137 seats, approved with 125 votes the partial reform to article 158 of the Magna Carta, which charges the military with defending sovereignty and territorial integrity; and to the police, internal public order. The modification must be submitted to a popular referendum within 45 days to come into effect.
The reform establishes that the support of soldiers will be limited to the crimes of drug, weapons and human trafficking, money laundering, terrorism, illegal mining, extortion, intimidation and organized crime, as well as to maintain order in the prison system, The Legislature indicated in a statement.
For several years now, Ecuador has faced the onslaught of violence linked to drug trafficking, in which power is disputed with blood and fire in the streets and prisons.
The war between gangs leaves more than 460 inmates dead in massacres since 2021, while homicides have quadrupled since 2018, going from 6 to 26 per 100,000 inhabitants between 2021 and 2022. For this year a rate of 40 is expected.
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, who took office in November for a period of 18 months after early general elections, promotes a tough policy against drug trafficking, which has permeated State institutions.
Noboa, 36, has the support of Parliament thanks to a broad coalition that includes parties from the left and right.
To confront the high level of insecurity and the prison crisis, his predecessor Guillermo Lasso had to declare a state of exception, which allowed the mobilization of the military to the streets and prisons.
Lasso, who has been in power since May 2021, proposed that the participation of the military in the fight against organized crime be subject to a referendum, but the Constitutional Court established that it should be dealt with first by Congress.
Located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest cocaine producers, Ecuador has seized about 700 tons of cocaine since 2021.
Source: AFP
