(Mexico City) After El Salvador, Ecuador this week launched a war against cartels and gangs, an option which has shown its shortcomings and even its perverse effects in Colombia and Mexico, where the authorities are trying other strategies.
“Internal armed conflict” to “neutralize” 22 “terrorist groups”, with curfew and deployment of thousands of soldiers: supported by the United States, Ecuador has declared a state of exception in the face of the recent outbreak of violence: escapes, hostage taking.
“Governments resort to this response because they want immediate answers,” said Mathew Charles of the Colombian Organized Crime Observatory.
During his campaign, President Daniel Noboa had already pleaded for the militarization of the country after the assassination of a candidate, recalls Think Tank Insight Crime.
The young president also announced in early January the construction of two high-security prisons, modeled on those created in El Salvador.
PHOTO HENRY ROMERO, REUTERS
Soldiers search two men on a street in Guayaquil.
Plagued by gang violence, little Salvador (six million inhabitants, 8,124 km2) claims to be a benchmark in security.
President Nayib Bukele has imprisoned more than 73,000 suspected criminals under a state of emergency widely criticized by human rights defenders. Some 7,000 innocent people were subsequently released.
Bukele announced a homicide rate of 2.4/100,000 inhabitants in 2023, compared to 83/100,000 in 2017 before his election. “El Salvador is officially the safest country in Latin America,” assures the very popular president, campaigning for his re-election.
“Faulty drug policy”
In Ecuador, repression is urgently necessary “but will obviously not be sufficient,” former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa told AFP.
He pleads for more “control” in matters of money laundering in his country, whose economy is dollarized.
Ecuador’s war against gangs “lacks an exit strategy”, also adds the think tank Insight Crime.
“We know that strong-arm tactics never last and only work immediately,” summarizes expert Mathew Charles, of the Colombian Organized Crime Observatory.
Criminals “still have weapons” and will “respond with more violence,” he continues. “Sending people to prison is not the answer because we have seen that in prisons, it is the gangs who control and are in charge.”
In Colombia, as in Mexico, left-wing presidents have initiated a change of strategy.
“In America, the expansion of powerful international gangs is linked to an erroneous anti-drug policy,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro repeated on Wednesday, reacting on X (formerly Twitter) to the United States’ “assistance” proposal. to Ecuador.
“Despite the enormous efforts undertaken for more than half a century,” the fight against drugs has not achieved its goals, his government noted in a report on coca plantations in 2022.
Colombia remains the world’s leading producer of cocaine with at least 1,738 tonnes in 2022, according to the UN.
“Latin American countries must adopt powerful policies in favor of young people,” insists the Colombian president, elected in 2022.
His government wants over ten years (2023-2033) to “oxygenate” the territories affected by drug trafficking, and “suffocate” the criminal organizations “which generate violence”.
“Long-term strategy”
Mexico is also trying to turn the page on the “war on drugs” launched in December 2006 by former President Felipe Calderon.
Since that date, the number of homicides (more than 400,000) and kidnappings (tens of thousands) has continued to increase.
The attempt to “neutralize” cartel leaders has favored the emergence of “younger” leaders, “sometimes without strategic vision,” “more violent,” according to security expert Erubiel Tirado, of the Iberoamerican University. in Mexico.
In power since December 2018, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador described the war against crime launched by his predecessor as a “crime”.
“We cannot confront violence with violence,” he added. His government claims to address the causes of violence with social programs to reduce poverty.
At the same time, Lopez Obrador created a new security force, the National Guard (replacing the former federal police). And several drug lords were arrested during his tenure.
“Every day we arrest delinquents. And when there are no other options, there are clashes,” he summarized on July 4, 2022.
Under his mandate, the homicide rate broke records at 29 per 100,000 inhabitants between 2018 and 2020, before returning to 25/100,000 in 2022.
Latin America suffers from “corruption” and social inequalities, concludes expert Mathew Charles, who therefore pleads for “an integral program of security, anti-corruption and social investment. But this requires long-term strategies.”