At the beginning of November, in 24 hours there were 18 attacks on police and gas stations, and health facilities, leaving five policemen dead in the provinces of Guayas and Esmeraldas, where the government issued a state of emergency and a curfew for 45 days.

However, crimes don’t stop, they even extended to Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, an area that joined the exceptional measures that include a curfew from 21:00 to 5:00 hours.

This is the fifth time in his 17 months in office that President Gillermo Lassouses the state of emergency and violence continues on the rise, security expert Fernando Carrión warned, suggesting that they should change the method to get a different result.

For the official, “terrorist” acts and continuous clashes in penitentiaries -in which 410 prisoners have died in two years- are the criminal gangs’ response to the transfer of inmates and gang leaders to different jails.

In statements to Orbe, Carrión explained that in fact, the current situation originated in 2017, when they eliminated the Justice Ministry, which ran jails and other institutions, to merge it with what was later called Interior Ministry, which brought about a budget reduction.

Five years ago, the murder rate was 5.6 per 100,000 inhabitants; four years later, when President Lenín Moreno´s term of office came to an end, that number rose to 14.4, and now, during the Lasso administration, the tendency points to the fact that 2022 will wind up with a 21 to 22 rate.

With this scenario, the National Assembly approved a resolution demanding the administration to present in 30 days a strategy against insecurity with short, medium- and long-term actions.

Amid critical views against the government, the legislature has spoken of using the so-called “cross-death” clause, a constitutional mechanism that could bring down President Lasso and call for early elections, but finally, no party suggested the procedure.

Historian Juan Paz y Miño said that politicians only talk of superficial “solutions”: free possession of weapons, harsh laws, and direct use of force, “they don’t think of the State’s role in making large investments to improve living, work, and security conditions.”

Taken from Orbe By Adriana Robreño, Chief Correspondent/Quito

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