The Government has not and will not make a deal with organized crime, Cucalón said in an interview broadcast by Teleamazonas channel on Monday.
Last week, after a day of violent events in the cities of Esmeraldas and Guayaquil, gang leaders released videos with a call for peace featuring a police officer and an official from the National Service of Integral Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI).
Both are under investigation and never had the authorization from the national Government, Cucalón said in line with the statements made by President Guillermo Lasso on this issue.
Regarding the wave of violence that has affected the nation, he noted that it is partly due to a reaction from criminal groups to the “firm and forceful” actions by the Executive to confront organized crime.
In view of the increase in insecurity on the streets and prisons, the president decreed a state of emergency in the provinces of Manabí and Los Ríos, as well as in the municipality of Durán, in Guayas, and in all the country’s prisons.
The measure has been enforced more than 10 times during the current administration and the rate of violent deaths continues to increase.
In the early hours of Monday morning, four individuals opened fire at the house of Connie Jimenez, governor of Los Rios, where a state of emergency with curfew is in force.
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