Drugs: Italian fugitive drug trafficker arrested in Ecuador since 2018
Clashes between gangs in prison in Ecuador, 35 dead and 48 injured
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October 19, 2021 The announcement on live TV: "With immediate effect - said Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso - the armed forces and the police will be heard by force in the streets because we have decreed a state of emergency on the national territory". A measure that gives authorities the power to restrict, among other things, the freedom of movement, assembly and association. A decision taken after the president appointed retired general Luis Hernandez minister of defense yesterday, Monday, October 18, in the midst of a prison crisis. "This appointment is the recognition of a prestigious officer of the armed forces," said the president during the investiture of the new minister.
"Ecuador is going through a period of insecurity," added Guillermo Lasso. "National sovereignty is threatened by drug trafficking, human trafficking and illegal immigration," he said. Luis Hernandez, who replaces former navy commander Fernando Donoso, said that "the threats are here, inside" the country, referring in turn to crime and drug trafficking. This appointment comes in the midst of a prison crisis and on the eve of a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss, in particular, cooperation in the field of security and defense.
Reiterating the seriousness of the situation in the country, Lasso said that "there is only one enemy: drug trafficking", underlining that Ecuador has gone from being a traffic zone to one that consumes drugs.
"This - he said - is not only reflected in the quantity of drugs consumed in our country, but in the number of crimes that today have a direct or indirect relationship with drug dealing".
According to Lasso, drug trafficking has led to an increase in homicides, burglaries and kidnappings.