This Monday, President Daniel Noboa issued a decree that recognizes the persistence of an internal armed conflict in the nation and established measures to maintain operations against insecurity.

With the new executive decree, the Government determined that the Armed Forces can carry out military operations to “prevent and eradicate the activity of organized armed groups in the national territory.”

Likewise, the regulations determine that the Police and the Army continue with the operational and tactical deployment required to neutralize armed attacks, threats or risks orchestrated by organized crime, armed groups or terrorists.

President Noboa also declared penitentiary centers as security zones, as he did on March 7, when he extended the state of emergency for another 30 days, which began in January.

With this provision, the military and police will be in charge of “intramural and extramural, physical and procedural security” of the prisons.

The existence of an internal armed conflict was recognized since last January 9, when the president classified 22 organized crime gangs as terrorists, following the armed attack on the TC Televisión channel.

Since then, more than 13,000 detainees have been reported, of them 280 for terrorism, according to official figures from March, the most recent available.

On the other hand, Noboa is committed to the popular consultation scheduled for April 21 with the supposed objective of adopting other actions against insecurity, although his proposal is considered unnecessary and misleading by different political and social organizations.

ef/npg/nta