In Ecuador, the current government and its two predecessors have been characterized by the militarization of public security, accompanied by the validity of states of exception;
the growth in homicides, which took the country from 5.79% per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017 to exceed 40% in 2023;
and the deterioration of the public security situation, including prison massacres by armed inmates and the growth of cocaine smuggling.
All, in the virtual absence of a public security policy.
Likewise, the growth of coca and cocaine production in Colombia, combined with the growth of European demand, have contributed to a growing amount of Colombian cocaine leaving through Ecuadorian ports.
These circumstances have facilitated the growth and development of local criminal organizations that today focused their actions on drug trafficking, including drug dealing and the provision of transportation, production of base paste, and protection of cocaine shipments, at the orders and on behalf of criminal organizations. transnationals.
Disputes over the market and business of local organizations gave rise to confrontations between them, which included clashes in prisons, where they resulted in massacres due to the use of weapons.
The response of the Ecuadorian governments mentioned has been to militarize the country.
This was complemented with the issuance of regulations increasing the roles of the Armed Forces in public security, which found an obstacle in the Constitutional Court.
Finally, the Organic Law that regulates the legitimate exercise of force (2022) limited the use of force by the Armed Forces in the control of public order and citizen security.
This changed due to serious events.
The murder, on August 9, 2023, of the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, was followed by the escape from prison, on January 7, 2024, of José Adolfo Macías, leader of the criminal organization “Los Choneros”.
On January 8, 2024, President Noboa announced the signing of Decree 110 declaring a new state of exception.
The next day, an armed group entered the headquarters of Canal TC Televisión during a live broadcast, threatening the staff with weapons.
Given this, Noboa signed Decree 111 on January 9, in which he considered local criminal organizations “terrorists,” maintaining that each of them, by their actions, constituted a “belligerent non-state actor” producing acts of violence. planned and indiscriminate against the civilian population.
He alluded to the concept of non-international armed conflicts contained in the Geneva Conventions of 1949, declaring the existence of an internal armed conflict, mobilizing the Armed Forces and the National Police “…against transnational organized crime, terrorist organizations and non-governmental actors.” belligerent states…” ordering the Armed Forces to carry out military operations, to “neutralize” such actors.
A failed strategy - militarization - continues to deepen in Ecuador.
Added to the multiplication of violence - a usual consequence of such a strategy - is the growth in the importance of Ecuadorian ports for the flow of drugs to the United States and, increasingly, to Europe.
The character of belligerents is conferred, and the application of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their protocols is wrongly intended to a set of local criminal organizations, whose purpose is none other than to earn money illegally, working on their own account or for their bosses, the true transnational criminal organizations: the 'Ndrangheta and its Albanian associates, and the Mexican cartels Sinaloa and Jalisco NG.
In reality, this statement has sought to evade the limits imposed by legislation on the application of force by the Armed Forces.
We believe that a change in policy is necessary.
The objective should be to conclude the exit route of Colombian cocaine through the ports of Ecuador, which requires increasing the security of the ports and their adjacencies, and carrying out constant and effective patrolling of the border with Colombia, in combination with said country, as has been done with the capture of semi-submersibles.
It is essential to increase the fight against money laundering, which is ineffective in Ecuador, and to develop criminal intelligence.
Also restructure the penitentiary body, and overcome overcrowding in prisons, and their vulnerability.
through the construction of appropriate establishments.
Decisive state action in social crime prevention would help reduce the recruitment base of criminal organizations.
It is worth remembering that in Mexico (2006) President Felipe Calderón declared war on drug trafficking, which was entrusted to the Armed Forces.
In 2021, 350,000 deaths and more than 70,000 missing people were estimated as a consequence (Pardo Veiras and Arredondo, Washington Post, June 14, 2021).
Meanwhile, drug trafficking is strong in Mexico.
Will Ecuador follow this path?
If we continue this policy, we discount each other.
But Ecuador can change this direction.
The South American region, naturally concerned about the impact of this situation, observes attentively and sensitively what is happening there.
José Manuel Ugarte is a Doctor of Law and professor at the University of Buenos Aires. He is co-editor of the National Defense and Internal Security Laws.