Lasso declares state of emergency after explosion that killed five people in Guayaquil

First modification: 08/15/2022 – 10:47

With our Quito correspondent, Eric Samson, and AFP

While Ecuador has already seen attacks on police and armed forces barracks, the first major attack on civilians shocked Guayaquil, a city accustomed to violence.

According to witnesses, the subjects appeared at 2 in the morning on Sunday, August 14, on a motorcycle in the popular area of ​​Cristo del Consuelo. After firing several shots, they launched a bag full of explosives that turned the street known as “Calle 8” into a war zone, littered with debris, severed power lines and dust. At least nine houses and flats were destroyed, according to an official provisional report.

The explosion left 5 dead who have been identified and have no criminal record, Interior Minister Patricio Carrillo also said at a press conference. The official specified that because of the detonation there are 17 wounded, some with priors. “Many of them, if not most, are embracing silence and don’t want to contribute to the investigation,” he said.

Exception status

The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, declared a state of emergency in Guayaquil. “I have declared the city of Guayaquil in a State of Exception due to the criminal events that have taken place in the last few hours. The entire public force will be available to restore control of the city,” the president said on Twitter.

Lasso, who took office a year ago, warned: “We will not allow organized crime to try to run the country,” where drug traffickers leave scenes of terror in the streets with decapitated bodies hanging from bridges in the style of the Mexican cartels.

The Home Secretary offered a $10,000 reward for information about the attack. Patricio Carrillo did not hesitate to speak of a “declaration of war” against the State by “mercenaries of organized crime.” The minister asked for more resources and called for national unity in the fight against insecurity.

Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest port and one of the main drug export hubs, is a battleground between local criminal groups allied with Mexican cartels that have imported their methods. Last February, two bodies were hung from a bridge in Durán, at the entrance to the city.

In April, Lasso declared a 60-day state of emergency in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabí and Guayas, whose capital is Guayaquil, due to violence linked to drug trafficking.

War declaration

Once-peaceful Ecuador, sandwiched between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest cocaine producers, is facing rising drug-related violence. Last year the nation, with 18 million inhabitants, closed with a rate of 14 murders per 100,000 people, almost double that of 2020.

The clashes extend to the prisons, where since February 2021 there have been seven massacres with nearly 400 dead inmates. The authorities consider that these are clashes between gangs linked to drug trafficking that are fighting over territories for sale.

The most recent report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), published in June, indicates that Ecuador in 2020 seized 6.5% of the total cocaine seized in the world.

In 2021, Ecuador seized a record 210 tons of drugs, most of them cocaine. In the first half of this year, seizures exceed 100 tons.