Quito, March 3. Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso on Friday declared a new state of emergency for 60 days, with a night curfew, in the province of Esmeraldas, located on the north coast of the country and bordering Colombia, due to of a rebound in this jurisdiction. homicides and crimes.
The curfew will be in effect from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., while the rights to freedom of association and assembly, inviolability of the home and inviolability of correspondence will be suspended for the duration of the state of emergency.
Furthermore, the Armed Forces will be deployed to support the National Police in its actions to maintain internal order.
According to reports from the Ministry of Interior, in the province of Esmeraldas there were 70 homicides in the first 60 days of 2023, as well as 374 reports of theft and 94 detained for drug trafficking, with 1,432 kilos drugs seized.
Among those killed, a police officer was shot dead, while several police stations were targeted by gunfire in various parts of the province.
According to the decree issued by Lasso, Esmeraldas is one of the provinces with the highest levels of insecurity in the country, figures that stem from conflicts between organized criminal groups fighting for control of roads and territories for trade. illegal narcotics.
This is the third time in less than a year that the Lasso government has decreed a state of emergency in Esmeraldas, after this measure had already been declared for two periods in 2022 due to various episodes of renewed violence from the organized crime.
The first took place between April 29 and June 28, and the second was in effect from November 1 to December 15. ECE
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