(Quito) Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso announced on Monday that he had declared a state of emergency for the entire country due to a wave of violence due to drug trafficking, ordering the mobilization in the streets of police and soldiers.
“From now on, our armed forces and our police will be massively mobilized in the streets, because we are declaring a state of emergency throughout the national territory”, launched the Head of State in a speech broadcast by the public channel EcuadorTV.
“In the streets of Ecuador, there is only one enemy: drug trafficking”, and “in recent years, Ecuador has moved from a country of drug trafficking to a country that also uses drugs Said Mr. Lasso, who took office last May.
PHOTO RODRIGO BUENDIA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Guillermo Lasso
The right-wing leader had decided earlier this Monday to change his defense minister, in the context of a prison crisis, by appointing a retired general, Luis Hernandez.
Between January and August 2021, 1,427 intentional homicides were recorded in the country, or 55 more murders than those reported in the whole of 2020, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior.
At the end of September, a prison in southwest Ecuador was the scene of the massacre of 119 inmates, some of whom had been dismembered or burned, in violent clashes between rival gangs linked to drug trafficking and Mexican and Colombian cartels, one of the worst prison killings in Latin American history.
According to official figures, at least 238 prisoners have been killed since early 2021 in Ecuadorian prisons, overcrowded and subjected to recurrent violence for years.