(Quito) Ecuador declared a state of emergency on Friday in the coastal province of Esmeraldas (northwest), which borders Colombia and is one of the areas most affected by crime and trafficking drug.
“The measure restricts the rights to freedom of movement, association, assembly, inviolability of home and correspondence from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.,” the General Secretariat for Communication said in a statement.
The state of emergency will last 60 days and provides for the armed forces and the police to “coordinate their efforts” to “maintain public order and preserve internal security”.
In Esmeraldas, located on the northern border, violence has intensified in recent months, making it one of the provinces with “the highest levels of insecurity in the country”, according to the decree signed by President Guillermo Lasso .
“These major escalations (of violence) are intimately linked to illicit drug trafficking as well as extortion mechanisms,” the document adds.
Since January, the province has recorded 70 homicides and four attacks on police stations.
Last November, Mr. Lasso declared a state of emergency in the coastal provinces of Esmeraldas, Guayas and Santo Domingo following a raid by drug traffickers on prisoner transfers that left eight people dead.
Located between Colombia and Peru – the world’s top cocaine producers – Ecuador seized an annual record 210 tonnes of drugs in 2021, mostly cocaine, bound for European ports.
In 2022, seizures exceeded 200 tons of drugs and the government declared war on traffickers, who fiercely defend the drug routes.
At the same time, the homicide rate nearly doubled. Between 2021 and 2022, it rose from 14 to 25 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the authorities.