“We are in a state of war”: Ecuador’s president warns officials against collaborating with criminals

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“We are in a state of war and must not surrender to the terrorist groups,” the head of state said in a radio interview on Wednesday. Officials working with the gangs will be tried for terrorism.

In view of the escalating violence, the government of the South American country sent armed forces into the fight against the gangs on Tuesday. President Noboa has declared more than twenty criminal groups terrorist organizations that must be eliminated. Ecuador is now in an internal armed conflict in the fight against organized crime, the decree said.

The security situation in Ecuador had recently deteriorated dramatically. The murder rate of about 46.5 murders per 100,000 inhabitants last year was the highest in the history of the once peaceful Andean country and one of the highest in Latin America. Several gangs linked to powerful Mexican cartels are fighting for control of drug trafficking routes. Ecuador is a major transit country for cocaine from South America that is smuggled to the United States and Europe.

At the end of last year, more than twenty suspects, including judges, prosecutors, police and correctional officers, were arrested during a nationwide crackdown on organized crime. “The investigation shows how drug trafficking penetrated state institutions,” Attorney General Diana Salazar said at the time.

(SDA)

Source: Blick