Quito, Jul 17 (EFE).- Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa said Wednesday that “the mafias’ days are numbered” in the Durán area, affected by drug trafficking and located in the coastal province of Guayas, one of the hardest hit by violence in the Andean nation.
In Durán, where he arrived wearing a helmet and a protective vest and surrounded by a strong security presence, Noboa noted that this is “a cradle of old Ecuador, where citizens have been victims of a corrupt system, which has kept the city in the dark, marginalized and forgotten.”
“Old Ecuador wants Durán to remain a center for drug trafficking, perpetuating cycles of violence and despair, but we will not allow them to continue playing with the lives of the inhabitants of Durán,” he warned.
The governor added that they came to Durán to confront criminal groups: “We are not coming to Durán just for one day, we will be here as long as necessary to finish off the mafias.”
“They have promised you (the population) everything, they have laughed at your needs and every four years they have asked for your vote. They tried to govern like a monarchy, just to get rich. And where are they now? Hiding, fleeing, hiding in the shadows so that the mafias themselves do not kill them. They have all been complicit in what has happened here for years,” he said.
The head of state revealed that he received information regarding the alleged dismantling, early Wednesday morning, of a “kind of parallel office of the Municipality” where, apparently, “procedures were carried out that contributed to land trafficking and illicit business.”
“That is the old Ecuador, with an unlimited level of corruption. I want you to know that we are not afraid, we do not owe anything to anyone. We do not come with promises, we are here with actions,” he stressed.
And he warned: “We will take Durán into our own hands and return it to its true and only owners: the families of Durán. Don’t be surprised if what comes next is drastic, just be prepared because the mafias’ days are numbered.”
So far this year, Durán has reported more than 250 murders, which the government has attributed to disputes over territory between the Chone Killers and Latin Kings criminal gangs, the Primicias website reported, noting that, according to the police, both criminal groups seek control of large and small-scale drug trafficking.
Since the beginning of the year, Noboa has elevated the fight once morest organized crime to the category of “internal armed conflict,” with which he began to classify criminal gangs as terrorist groups and non-state belligerents.
Organized crime gangs, mainly dedicated to drug trafficking, are blamed for the wave of violence that has hit Ecuador and led it to rank as the country with the most homicides per capita, registering 47.2 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, according to the Ecuadorian Observatory of Organized Crime (OECO).
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2024-07-18 02:22:59