Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso announced on Saturday that the carrying and possession of weapons for civilian use for personal defense is authorized, after an increase in insecurity in the country.
He also declared a state of emergency in and around Guayaquil, the crime-ridden coastal city, which includes a nightly curfew from 1:00 a.m.
“Ecuadorians, we have a common enemy: delinquency, drug trafficking and organized crime,” Lasso said in a televised message before announcing the modification of the decree that regulates the use of weapons to authorize civilians to have and carry weapons and use them for their personal defense, as well as the use of pepper spray for the same purpose.
The measures, part of what he called a “crusade” for security, come a day after a man in Guayaquil had explosives attached to his body in a kind of makeshift vest for several hours until the police were able to remove them and disable them.
On Friday, a suspect in a corruption scheme that surrounds the president himself was also found dead in the town of Punta Blanca, in one of the closest beach areas to Guayaquil.
“The private security guards will support the national police in surveillance and security tasks by carrying their weapons around their work stations,” added Lasso. “I feel like you worry about insecurity; For the Ecuadorian government, its peace and tranquility are vital”, he asserted. In parallel, the manufacture and carrying of handcrafted weapons is prohibited.
In Guayaquil, the quarter closed with 555 intentional homicides, according to figures from the Ministry of Government. Lasso said he had reinforced police personnel with 130 repowered (rehabilitated) vehicles and 400 new agents.
To which the Armed Forces are now added after declaring a state of emergency in the city and its surroundings and imposing a curfew from 1:00 to 5:00 in the morning.
According to the president, the authorities have “identified 15 high-value targets,” which are under surveillance.
“We are going to capture them,” he predicted. In addition, he said that six more have already been arrested, among them a “leader of Los Lobos”, in reference to one of the criminal gangs that, according to the authorities, are part of organized crime related to drug trafficking and that are behind the rise of violence in the country in recent years.
A judge, reproached the president, “today he released Gordo Lucho, another leader of Los Lobos.”
Since it began its term in May 2021, the government of Guillermo Lasso has resorted to declarations of exception on several occasions in response to attacks and the upsurge in violence.
The authorities attribute the increase in insecurity in the country to the dispute over territories between criminal gangs related to drug trafficking and the episodes of confrontations with deaths in the country’s prisons.
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