The president planned to go to Orlando, Florida, with his family during this week’s long holiday in Ecuador, but in the face of criticism, he decided to remain in the national territory.

Ecuador experienced an early morning of terror with 10 explosive attacks on gas stations, hospitals and police units in the cities of Guayaquil and Esmeraldas, where two police officers were also murdered and prison officers were kidnapped and released hours later.

According to authorities, the criminal acts are related and there will be a forceful response, announced the Commander of the National Police, Fausto Salinas.

‘We will use all our capabilities,’ assured Salinas, and reported they will work with the more than 52,000 uniformed men in their ranks.

For his part, Interior Minister Juan Zapata insisted that the events are the responsibility of drug gangs and not common criminals.

Although the perpetrators of the crimes presumably belong to these gangs linked to trafficking, citizens blame the executive for not doing enough to control the escalation of violence.

Since January, the National Police and the government announced an investment of 200 million dollars to equip the uniformed officers and fight drug trafficking, but 11 months later the disbursement of the resources has not materialized.

Ecuador will end the year with the highest number of murders in the last three decades due to the lack of social investments and public policies in the face of prevailing violence, experts in the field estimate.

Official figures indicate that in the first half of the year there were more than two thousand violent homicides in this Andean nation.

ef/ro/avr