Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa on Friday extended the last state of emergency he had declared in six of the country’s 24 provinces and one municipality in a seventh province for another 30 days due to serious internal unrest in the fight against organized crime.
The state of emergency had originally been declared by Noboa for 60 days, starting on July 2.
By means of a new decree, Noboa maintained this exceptional measure for another month in the coastal provinces of Guayas, Manabí, Santa Elena and El Oro, in the tropical province of Los Ríos and in the Amazonian province of Los Ríos, as well as in the municipality of Camilo Ponce Enríquez, a mining enclave in the southern Andean province of Azuay where criminal gangs seek to take over its activity.
In nineteen municipalities in the areas covered by this state of emergency, a night-time curfew will be in effect between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. local time (3:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. GMT).
The state of emergency entails the suspension of certain fundamental rights such as the inviolability of the home and the inviolability of correspondence, as well as the right to freedom of assembly provided that the right to peaceful protest is guaranteed, as ruled by the Constitutional Court in its review of this latest state of emergency.
At the beginning of August, Ecuador’s highest court of guarantees validated this state of exception decreed by Noboa after having annulled the two previous ones, considering that they were not duly justified and that the declaration of “internal armed conflict” made by the president was not a sufficient argument to declare said states of exception.
Ecuador has become the leading country in Latin America in terms of homicides per capita, with a rate of 47.2 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, eight times higher than in 2016, due to the rise in violence by criminal groups, mainly dedicated to drug trafficking, although they are also venturing into illegal mining.
Since the beginning of the year, Noboa elevated the fight against organized crime to the category of “internal armed conflict,” which led him to classify these gangs as terrorist groups and non-state belligerents, while declaring a state of emergency with which, among other actions, he militarized the prisons controlled by these organizations.
According to the government, violent deaths nationwide have decreased by 17% in 2024 compared to the previous year, but episodes of criminal violence have not ceased, while kidnappings and extortion continue to be reported.
Quito / EFE
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2024-09-02 08:24:08
