The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, seeks in this Sunday's referendum to obtain support to make the legal changes he requires to reinforce the fight against insecurity, including keeping the army on the streets, amid the increasing wave of violence. in the country.
Some 13.6 million Ecuadorians are registered to vote in the popular consultation called by Noboa, who has posed 11 questions that citizens must answer “yes” or “no” on a single ballot. Five of them are referendums, that is, they imply amendments to the Constitution, and six are popular consultations, which do not imply changes to the Magna Carta, but to secondary laws.
Ecuador's president has asked voters to support joint police and military patrols, the extradition of wanted criminals and longer sentences for terrorism and murder, among other crimes, to combat growing violence attributed to drug gangs.
It will be the third popular consultation in just over a year, although the first for Noboa, a 36-year-old millionaire businessman, who assumed power in November for a period of 18 months and who may run for re-election in February of next year.
Polls have suggested that voters are more likely to support Noboa, although recent power outages They can reduce the support you are looking for.
Noboa ordered daily multi-hour power cuts this week amid drought-related power shortages, which some pollsters have said could damage his image and potentially the “yes” vote. Most of Ecuador's energy comes from hydroelectric power.
Among the issues on which Ecuadorians must speak out is whether the military presence should continue in the streets to control internal security, as Noboa ordered at the beginning of the year amid a wave of gang attacks and prison riots. In ordinary situations, the control and surveillance of citizen security is solely the responsibility of the police and in prisons, of the governing body of the penitentiary system.
Voting for the popular consultation began at 7:00 a.m. and will close at 5:00 p.m. Voting is mandatory for Ecuadorians between 18 and 64 years old and optional for young people between 16 and 17 years old. Ecuador is a country with 17 million inhabitants.
Nearly 430,000 Ecuadorians residing abroad are eligible to vote. However, the National Electoral Council suspended the elections in four countries. In Israel, due to the war conflict with Hamas; in Mexico, due to lack of resources to hire private security in the consulates and guarantee the vote; and in Russia and Belarus, due to “logistical setbacks.”
The consultation also proposes an increase in penalties for crimes of terrorism and others related to organized crime and drug trafficking, as well as the classification of the crimes of possession and carrying of weapons, the use of which is exclusive to law enforcement forces.
Ecuador has been immersed in a climate of insecurity for three years, with a record increase in murders that raised the rate of violent deaths at the end of 2023 to 40 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest on the continent. Last year there were more than 7,600 crimes. The authorities attribute it to the action of criminal gangs related to drug trafficking.
Cocaine smuggling gangs have expanded to all corners of Latin America over the past decade, turning once-quiet nations like Ecuador into new battlegrounds, security officials and diplomats say.
In less than a week two mayors were shot to deathshocking the country.
[Con información de Reuters y AP]
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