Less than two weeks after an unprecedented outbreak of violence, the return to calm is only relative in Ecuador. Dozens of people were arrested during an attempted attack on a hospital on Sunday, January 21, a fresh episode of violence in a country rocked by a war with gangs.
Ecuadorian police announced the arrest of 68 suspected members of a criminal organization who were trying to invade a hospital they owned. “We neutralized the suspected terrorists, who wanted to take control of the hospital facilities in Yaguachi”In Guayas province (southwest of the country), she indicated “Protect an injured member of their organization” who were admitted to this health facility early in the morning.
Weapons and drugs were also seized. a “Re-education Centre” Secret, where “were hiding” Suspected members of the organization were also searched, police said. Authorities have recently closed several such centers, essentially gang-run clandestine hospitals that officials say lack the medical equipment needed to treat patients.
On Sunday, about ten tons of drugs were also seized near the town of Vinces in Los Rios (West) province, the army said on X.
Creation of “Andean Security Network”.
On the same day, an emergency meeting dedicated to Ecuador, hit by unprecedented violence linked to drug trafficking, was held in Lima, Peru, bringing together the member states of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN). At the end of this summit, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador first “Andean Security Network” against organized crime, according to an official statement.
This network will guarantee “24-hour, seven-days-a-week service for providing and receiving information and/or requesting information from other countries (…) on the activity of criminal groups which have or may have international operations”.Indicated the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Interior and Defense of CAN.
“We made history, we wrote a new chapter of CAN”Ecuador’s foreign minister, Gabriela Sommerfeld, was delighted. “Fear paralyzes nationsshe emphasized. We have seen fear paralyze Ecuador, paralyze investment, increase unemployment and emigration”.
A Country “At Civil War”
The proliferation and expansion of gangs involved in drug trafficking and racketeering in Ecuador has put border areas on alert. Peru and Colombia have strengthened their border controls, fearing the entry of criminals fleeing intense repression in Ecuador.
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Considered a relatively safe country, Ecuador has been mired in violence for five years, against a backdrop of economic recession and poverty following the Covid-19 pandemic: the homicide rate rose from 6 to 46 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023.
Located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest producers of cocaine, Ecuador has for years been sheltered from violence linked to drug trafficking. But from an easy transit country, it has become an operations and logistics center for cocaine shipping to Europe. And about twenty gangs literally rule the law, especially from prison.
A step in the terror came on January 9 with a live attack on public television TC by heavily armed men, who briefly held journalists and channel staff hostage before the police arrived. To free them, thirteen attackers were arrested. Eight days later, Cesar Suárez, the anti-mafia prosecutor responsible for investigating this spectacular attack, was murdered, shot dead in broad daylight in the center of Guayaquil (southwest).
President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency and declared the country “In Civil War” Against the gang, described as “terrorists”More than 20,000 troops deployed on the ground.
