On Sunday, the president tweeted that these Cobra II vehicles will be used by the Armed Forces to combat delinquency and organized crime.

One of the main criticisms of the Executive amid the current wave of insecurity is the lack of investment to confront criminal gangs, which do have high caliber weapons and ammunition.

In the first semester of the year, the Interior Ministry spent 8.8 percent of 96.9 million dollars allocated to fight crime, which translates into a shortage of equipment and protection for the police force, according to official data.

Ecuador is going through an insecurity crisis with increasingly frequent murders, robberies, kidnappings, extortion and other crimes, as well as prison riots that have resulted in nearly 450 inmates dead in the last two years.

In the last week of July, this South American nation was the scene of new armed and explosive attacks, as well as riots in several prisons, mainly in the Litoral Penitentiary, where 31 people died.

As a result of the events, Lasso decreed a state of emergency in the provinces of Manabí and Los Ríos, in the municipality of Durán, in Guayas, and in the country’s prison system, a measure taken on more than ten occasions during his term in office.

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