Quito, Ecuador.- Ecuador is the Latin American country where citizens feel more insecure on the streets at night, above Venezuela, according to a survey published this Friday by Gallup.
Almost two out of three Ecuadorians consulted in 2022 said they did not feel safe walking alone at night where they live, while 35 percent did, says the US polling company, which attributes the figures to the escalation of violence from the gangs, drug trafficking and riots.
Just five years ago, Ecuador was among the countries in the region where citizens felt safer, with 52 percent, and Venezuela obtained the worst result.
But perception in Venezuela improved in 2022, with 53 percent feeling unsafe walking alone at night, up from 67 percent the year before.
Ecuador, situated between the two largest cocaine producers in the world, Colombia and Peru, has become a nerve center in the global drug trade.
“The boom in cocaine production in Colombia, cuts in Ecuador’s prison budgets, and the elimination of the Ministry of Justice, among other factors, have made the state less capable of controlling the effects of international drug trafficking” , Gallup noted.
Crime rates and the prison population have skyrocketed.
According to official data, the homicide rate rose to 25 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022, compared to 14 in 2021. Hundreds of inmates have been murdered, at least a dozen police officers have died due to gang violence, and some Ecuadorians they have seen decapitated bodies hanging from bridges.
This has led conservative President Guillermo Lasso to decree states of emergency.
The situation is critical in the West Coast states, a recent epicenter of drug trafficking, where almost three-quarters of those polled by Gallup do not feel safe walking alone.
The perception of public security in the west of the country is close to the levels registered in Afghanistan in 2021 (77 percent felt unsafe) when the Taliban returned to power.
In addition, Ecuadorians’ trust in the local police and judicial system has fallen to the lowest levels in more than a decade. According to the survey, around two out of five (41 percent) Ecuadorians in 2022 trusted the local police, and 24 percent in justice.
