Quito, Ecuadorin the war against drugs, reduced on Tuesday the curfew imposed two weeks ago within the framework of a state of emergency, under which the military is deployed in the streets and daily homicides were reduced from 27 to 11.
The traffic restriction starting at 11:00 p.m. local time (04:00 GMT), which was six hours, will be reduced to five in areas considered highly dangerous, in ten of the country’s 24 provinces.
Among these areas is the port of Guayaquil (southwest), a strategic center for shipping drugs to the United States and Europe, and Quito.
In other medium-level areas of 14 provinces the curfew will be three hours in the early morning, while the measure was eliminated for low-conflict sectors of 22 provinces.
The resolution issued by President Daniel Noboa, who on Tuesday traveled to Spain to participate in a tourism fair and fulfill a diplomatic agenda, was released after authorities announced the decrease in crimes.
As a result of the state of emergency, decreed on January 8, there is “a downward trend in violent deaths, with an average of 10.8 (crimes) per day,” police commander César said at a joint press conference. Zapata.
He added that between January 1 and 8, the average number of murders was 27.6 per day.
Ecuador is one of the most violent countries in the region. Between 2018 and 2023, homicides went from 6 to 46 per 100,000 inhabitants, a record.
Insecurity and organized crime
Noboa mobilized the military forces and implemented a 60-day night curfew after learning of the escape from prison of Adolfo Macías, alias Fito, head of the feared and main criminal gang called Los Choneros.
The mafias responded with a violent onslaught that included the kidnapping of more than 200 police and prison guards, attacks with explosives, and the armed takeover of a television station in Guayaquil.
In this context, the president declared an “internal armed conflict” and ordered soldiers to “neutralize” around twenty drug organizations, which he called “terrorists” and belligerents.
Ecuador relies on the United States to combat criminal gangs, which have connections with cartels in Mexico and Colombia and sow anxiety in the country.
In the midst of the visit of US military and anti-drug chiefs, an Antonov plane arrived in the country on Monday with military aid cargo, which was not detailed by the national authorities.
US support for Ecuador
The United States embassy in Quito indicated on the social network
The US delegation, which includes the head of the Southern Command, Laura Richardson, met behind closed doors with Noboa at the presidential headquarters on Monday.
The delegation met this Tuesday with the attorney general, Diana Salazar, to analyze “bilateral cooperation strategies with the objective of combating insecurity and organized crime,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Salazar is promoting an investigation called Metastasis, which revealed in December a network of corruption in Ecuador in which judges, prosecutors and police benefited criminal organizations in exchange for money, gold, prostitutes, apartments and luxuries.
Closer to Fito
As a result of the ongoing anti-drug fight, the country has seized 35 tons of drugs, of which 22 were found in a single warehouse last Sunday.
According to Admiral Jaime Vela, head of the joint command of the Armed Forces, the military has taken control of the 10 most violent prisons in the country. From there they have removed weapons, drugs, explosives and even Internet cable networks and television signals.
After the expulsion of Fito’s wife and children from Argentina last Friday, Zapata specified that there is no arrest warrant against them.
Macías’ family “is not safe and is not being monitored by the police,” he said.
At the same time, the uniformed officers are following the trail of Fito, who was serving a 34-year sentence for murder, drug trafficking and organized crime.
“We are getting closer and surely alias Fito is feeling it,” Vela warned.
Source: AFP
