2024-01-13 19:37:11
“Be strong! And good luck!” says an elderly woman as she passes around twenty soldiers patrolling a working-class neighborhood in the south of Quito, the Ecuadorian capital.
After President Daniel Noboa this week declared a state of emergency and the country in “internal armed conflict” once morest criminal gangs involved in flourishing drug trafficking and who sow terror, 22,400 soldiers were deployed throughout the territory.
The men are equipped as if they were going to the front: rifles, helmets, bulletproof vests and hidden faces to preserve their anonymity and safety. This Lucha de los Pobres neighborhood is described as “dangerous” by the residents themselves.
“God bless you, may he keep you alive, in good health,” cries Luz Cumbicos, 87, in a broken voice. Luz was in the yard of her house harvesting her cabbages, but realizing the presence of the soldiers, she rushed into the street to greet them, waving her hand in the air.
Other residents run to hug them, others blow them kisses or offer them food. The most cautious stay on their doorstep or behind a window.
“Kill Em”
Aboard an olive green truck, this combat group, specialists in jungle operations, climbed to the shanty town perched on a ridge in the sprawling east of Quito, the capital surrounded by the mountains of the Andes cordillera.
Their arrival came as a surprise. They immediately set up checkpoints. They stop and search the vehicles. Check the identities of suspicious people, with body searches. These muscular controls provoke applause from passers-by, countless gestures of gratitude and even blessings.
A young man with tattoos on his body is questioned. These tattoos are one of the characteristics of gang members, who thus claim their membership and their loyalty to the “Choneros” (Those of Chone), “Tiguerones” (Tigers) and other “Lobos” (Wolves). “He looks suspicious,” says one of the hooded soldiers, suspiciously.
“We patrol 24 hours a day,” Captain Amanda Tovar, who heads the device, told the press. These operations in the city are launched following the collection and analysis of “intelligence”. “We found bladed weapons (…) These sectors are conflict zones,” assures the officer.
One of his men stood defiantly in front of a tire repair shop. With his finger on the trigger, he is in charge of protecting the checkpoint. A few minutes later, the order is given to re-embark, we change intersections.
The commandos get in the truck and head to another “hot” spot. The driver of a delivery truck greets them with enthusiastic horns. “Good, good, don’t be discouraged,” he encourages in passing.
This time the soldiers began a patrol on foot and in column. They take the steep and poor streets, descend stairs overgrown with wild grass to reach a cement basketball court.
A young woman comes to meet them and hands them a bunch of bananas. For the “hungry little one”, Luz, the nonagenarian in her red kitchen apron, mischievously comments, to the attention of the youngest of the patrol.
“We will neutralize any criminal or terrorist who wants to harm our country,” warns Captain Tovar. In front of her daughter’s sewing workshop, closed due to the events, Isabel Camacho, 83, agrees with an unambiguous message: “Kill these criminals. It is better to kill those who hurt us too much.”
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