Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso on Nov. 18 extended the country’s state of emergency by a second 30 days. The decree is ostensibly an attempt to combat the insecurity generated by drug-related crime and re-establish public order. It provides for the mobilization of military forces in certain provinces to assist the functions of the National Police in several provinces.
The emergency was originally declared on Oct. 18, for a period of 60 days, but the duration was reduced to 30 days by Ecuador’s Constitutional Court. The renewed state of emergency will be enacted in nine of the 24 provinces in the country: El Oro, Guayas, Santa Elena, Manabí, Los Ríos, Esmeraldas, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Pichincha and Sucumbíos.
Ecuador’s Interior Ministry has stated that the results obtained in the 234,804 operations carried out during the first month of emergency reveal that the measure has been effective. The ministry also stated that in the first 30 days of the state of emergency, 16 tons of drugs, and 634 firearms have been seized. Additionally, at least 76 “narco-criminal” organizations have been dismantled, and 6,894 people have been arrested. The homicide rate was also cut in half during November to 0.63 per 100 thousand inhabitants, whereas in October it was 1.20 per 100 thousand inhabitants.
From Jurist, Nov. 22
See our last report on the state of emergency in Ecuador.
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New state of emergency in Ecuador
Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso on April 29 declared a state of emergency in three of the country’s 24 provinces in response to increasing violence and crime perpetrated by drug-trafficking gangs.
During the 60-day state of emergency, 4,000 police personnel and 5,000 members of the armed forces will be deployed in the provinces of Guayas, Manabi and Esmeraldas. The forces will patrol the streets of the three provinces, and a curfew is to be imposed in Emeraldas.
This is the second time Lasso has declared an emergency citing a rise in gang-related violence. The first emergency, promulgated in October, was extended by 30 days. (Jurist)
Ecuador: Guayaquil blast ‘declaration of war’
Government officials in Ecuador have blamed a deadly explosion in Guayaquil on narco gang. At least five people were killed and 26 more injured in the blast on a residential street. Eight houses and two cars were also destroyed.
Interior Minister Patrick Carrillo called it a “declaration of war” by criminal gangs against the government. A state of emergency has been declared in Guayaquil. It is the fourth emergency to be declared in Ecuador since October.
Officials say the attack was directed at two men who go under the aliases of Cucaracha and Junior, and are linked to Los Tiguerones, one of the leading crime gangs in Ecuador. (BBC News)
Coordinated deadly attacks in Ecuador
At least five police officers were killed and prison guards taken hostage in Ecuador’s Guayaquil and Esmeraldas cities, in a wave of coordinated attacks. Officials said organized crime groups launched nine attacks with explosives and firearm in response to a transfer of inmates from Guayas 1 prison. The prison, in the port city of Guayaquil, is one of the main scenes of a series of prison massacres that have left about 400 inmates dead since February 2021. Two headless bodies were found hanging from a pedestrian bridge in Esmeraldas a day before the wave of attacks. (AFP, Reuters)
Another deadly prison uprising in Ecuador
Ten inmates were killed Nov. 18 during a riot at a prison in Ecuador’s capital that authorities said took place as a result of the government’s decision to relocate three crime bosses to a high-security facility.
The unrest at the prison in Quito is the latest challenge to the country’s corrections system, the Service for Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty, whose facilities have repeatedly seen deadly clashes among inmates. (AP)
Another deadly prison uprising in Ecuador
Several inmates were killed in gang-related riots at an Ecuadoran prison. In an announcement, a Quit0-based advocacy group reported that 12 were killed and three were injured in riots at the Litoral Penitentiary in the city of Guayaquil. (Jurist)