A total of 11 parliamentarians representing the province signed a document announcing that they will request that the plenary session of the National Assembly be conducted this Tuesday to approve summoning the mentioned authorities, which will allow the assembly members and citizens to know the progress and challenges in matters of security, as well as evaluate the implemented policies.

The province of Manabí is one of the six territories of Ecuador where a state of exception is in force and where the Government moved the headquarters of the so-called Security Block, which brings together the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces and the National Police.

The security problems are not limited to Manabí, since at the national level, so far this year, there have been 16 murders daily, according to official figures published in local media, despite which Minister Palencia reported at a press conference that from January 1st to July 21st there were 774 fewer homicides than in the same period of the previous year and that 3,369 murders were reported so far in 2024.

The authorities blame the wave of violence on gangs linked to drug trafficking, turning the country into one of the most unsafe in the world, with 47.2 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, according to the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory.

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