“Drug trafficking has gained space in Ecuadorian society, its presence has been painfully facilitated for 15 years,” said the conservative president in an interview with local media.
Lasso blamed the advance of drug trafficking on the alleged inaction of the leftist government of Rafael Correahis political rival and who held power between 2007 and 2017.
At that time “micro drug trafficking is installed in Ecuador and everything that comes from drug trafficking is also installed, which are the gangs, the bands, the division of territories,” he insisted in his remarks.
Amid the rise of illegal activity, violence has mainly taken over prisons. Last year 320 inmates died in gang disputes that turned Ecuadorian prisons into the bloodiest in Latin America.
In 2021 the homicide rate was 14 per 100,000 inhabitants, almost double the rate in 2020 (8 per 100,000 inhabitants), according to the Ministry of Government (Interior).
On Monday, the violence associated with drug trafficking reached an unprecedented level for Ecuador. The bodies of two men were suspended with a rope from a pedestrian bridge in Durán, a town near Guayaquil, focus of insecurity. The finding evoked the crimes of the Mexican narco.
In this regard, Lasso added: “Now (the gangs) transfer their struggles to the streets and we see these cruel, grotesque attitudes. It is something terrifying, something that annoys, that angers.”
At the same time, he promised firmness in the fight against drug traffickers. “We cannot be intimidated, we cannot act with fear, we have to act with integrity, with decision,” he emphasized.
Last year, drug seizures reached a record figure of 210 tons, mainly cocaine. This year there are already 33 tons seized, according to Lasso.
Ecuador was for years a transit point for cocaine produced in Colombia and Peru and sold in the United States and Europe.
However, now it is also the territory of money laundering and disputes over drug routes and warehouses.
Source: Ambito
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