Ecuador's president declares a state of emergency

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Ecuadorean President Guillermo Laso declared a state of emergency throughout the country and requested that police and military units be deployed on the streets to counter the wave of drug-related violence.

"From this moment, our armed forces and police will be deployed in the streets, because we have declared a state of emergency throughout the country," Lasso was quoted by AFP as saying in a televised speech.

Lasso, who took office last May, added that "on the streets of Ecuador there is only one enemy, drug dealers," expressing regret that "in recent years Ecuador has moved from being a drug-smuggling country to a drug-using country."

Ecuador, located between Peru and Colombia, is the largest cocaine-producing country and a major transit point for drug shipments to the United States and Europe.

And between the months of last January and August, the Ecuadorean authorities seized about 116 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine, compared to 128 tons in the whole of 2020.