QUITO— The Ecuadorian president, Daniel Noboa, met on Monday with a high-level mission from the United States government in order to seek the most appropriate mechanisms to receive cooperation in security and defense that allows the Andean country to face the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking that has unleashed an uncontrollable spiral of violence.
Noboa held, together with his ministers of Defense, Interior and others from the security axis, a reserved meeting with Christopher Dodd, special envoy for the Americas of the president of the United States, and with General Laura Richardson, commander of the Southern Command.
Support against insecurity in Ecuador
At the end of the meeting, the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, Gabriela Sommerfeld, assured that the presence of this delegation “is a powerful and concrete political signal of support (…) in the armed conflict against terrorism, drug trafficking and transnational organized crime” that seeks to restore peace to Ecuadorians.
In addition, he mentioned that for Ecuador it is a priority to expand access to markets for goods and services, attract investment and financing as part of the actions to create well-being and development of Ecuadorians, as well as reach agreements for orderly migration.
Also in the visiting delegation was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Counternarcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Christopher Landberg.
“The United States and the world have seen what is happening in Ecuador and know how important it is to have Ecuador protected,” Noboa had said in an interview with the Teleamazonas television network before receiving the visitors in which he asserted that the country “has become a key piece within the structure and routes of these narcoterrorist groups.”
Regarding US support, Noboa pointed out that at the same time Ecuador also needs “something essential: refinancing of external debt (…) while we fight this war we are not financially hanged.”
Wave of violence
Since the beginning of 2021, organized crime gangs linked to drug trafficking have unleashed a wave of insecurity with violent deaths, extortions, kidnappings and repeated riots in prisons that seemed to reach another level last week when a group of hooded men took over a television channel with weapons and explosives, which was broadcast live.
A few days before, Adolfo Macías, alias Fito, the dangerous leader of the largest criminal organization in the country, Los Choneros, disappeared from a Guayaquil prison, and then another regional leader of another gang, Fabricio Pico, fled, who has not been able to be located.
After this, Noboa decreed a state of internal war to confront the unbridled criminal violence with the support of combined groups of military and police that maintain a strong presence in the streets.
“We are at war and we managed to stop what was an avalanche of violence and destruction,” said the Ecuadorian president, who highlighted that the indicators of violent deaths and crime have dropped dramatically.
“Anti-narcotics operation”
The army, in its X account, specified that in an anti-drug operation that it had been carrying out since Sunday, it seized about 22 tons of cocaine hydrochloride that were presumably going to “the markets of Asia, Europe and North and Central America, using light aircraft.”
He added that the operation was a consequence of more than six months of observation and surveillance strategies carried out by military intelligence.
The action took place in the vicinity of the town of Vinces, 201 kilometers southwest of the capital, and the seizure constitutes a new record in a single operation after the police had neutralized 14 tons in October of last year.
The government awaits approval by the Assembly of an asset forfeiture law to use the assets and money of criminal groups in the fight against them. In addition, the Constitutional Court must approve a new agreement with the United States to facilitate the fight against the groups that the government calls narcoterrorists.
In his X account, General César Zapata, commander of the police, stated that on Sunday night Carlos L., alias El Gringo, was arrested, whom he defined as “a high-value target. Leader of the armed group Oliver Sinisterra from Colombia and linked to terrorist activities” in the Ecuadorian province of Esmeraldas, bordering that country.
He added that the capture was possible after three months of investigations. This group is part of the dissidents of the extinct guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that control a part of the Colombian-Ecuadorian border.
“Repatriation of prisoners”
Noboa insisted on the proposal to free up space in prisons through the repatriation of some 1,500 prisoners, especially from Colombia and Peru, for which he said he maintains contacts with the governments of those countries. He also confirmed that he maintains the proposal to build two new prisons.
To address the conflict situation, the president said that he is preparing to make cuts of 1 billion dollars in the state structure, especially in administrative and personnel expenses, “because the State has to tighten its belt and make an essential sacrifice.” .
Source: AP
