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The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboaguaranteed this Wednesday that the second phase of “war” which he declared to organized crime gangs at the beginning of the year, with the issuance of a new state of exception covering 7 of the country’s 24 provinces, as well as a municipality in an eighth province.
Through a decree, Noboa declared a state of emergency for 60 days in the coastal provinces of Guaias (whose capital is Guayaquil), Saint Helen, Manabi, The gold It is The riversas well as in the Amazon succumb It is Orellanain addition to the canton (municipality) of Camilo Ponce Enriquezin the southern Andean province of Azuaywhere its mayor was recently murdered.
LOOK HERE: Declared internal armed conflict in Ecuador has led to “serious human rights violations”, says HRW
This state of exception replaces the previous one that had been applied on April 30 in five provinces (Guayas, Santa Elena, Manabí, El Oro and Los Ríos) and which on May 10 was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Courtconsidering that the measure was not properly substantiated.
“Today we find ourselves in the second phase of the war, a war that has become sectorized. Criminal gangs, faced with the military offensive, took refuge and entrenched themselves in seven provinces“, said Noboa in a video message published on social media to announce the new state of exception.
The head of state emphasized that “These are the provinces that most need the Armed Forces and Police to have freedom of action”.
“To win this second phase of the war we need the military to be able to act, so that the criminals and terrorists who protect themselves and mock Justice in their right to the inviolability of their home, know that they will lose it.” he added.
Free entry to residences
The new state of exception implies in the aforementioned territories the suspension of the rights to inviolability of home and correspondence, while at the same time ordering the national Human Rights authority to report aspects relating to armed attacks or threats coming from criminal groups.
This decree does not provide for the mobilization of the Armed Forces to support the Police in operations against organized crime, since this measure is already permanent, without the need for states of exception, after being approved in the referendum held on April 21st. at Noboa’s request.
In this plebiscite, the president received broad support for a series of nine reforms to strengthen the fight against organized crime, but saw two economic reforms rejected to legalize hourly employment contracts and allow international arbitrations with investors in any jurisdiction.
“War” against the mafias
Since the beginning of the year, Noboa has elevated the fight against organized crime to the category of “internal armed conflict”, with which he began to classify criminal gangs as terrorist groups and non-state belligerent actors.
MORE INFORMATION: The Ecuadorian foreign minister claims that the vice president “is acting against Ecuador”
At the same time, it issued a nationwide state of emergency that ran from January 8 to April 7, and through which it began to militarize prisons, one of the epicenters of the country’s violence crisis, as many prisons dominated by criminal gangs.
To organized crime gangs, mainly dedicated to drug traffickingThey are blamed for the wave of violence that hits Ecuador and which led it to be among the first countries in Latin America with the most homicides, with a rate of 47 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, according to the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory (OECO).
This Wednesday the international organization Human Rights Surveillance (HRW) sent a letter to Noboa to express that its assessments of this first state of emergency determined that the declaration of “internal armed conflict” is not sufficiently motivated and that this measure contributed to serious human rights violations.
Source: Elcomercio
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