• Latin America The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, intends to recover the pulse with today's referendum

A bloody night preceded the electoral day that is celebrated this Sunday in

Ecuador

.

It could not be otherwise in the midst of the

wave of drug violence that the country is suffering

.

Two hitmen broke into the headquarters of the Citizen Revolution in the coastal municipality of Puerto López and shot at the mayoral candidate,

Omar Menéndez

(41 years old), and three other people.

The telecommunications businessman and a minor died in the attack.

The follower of the former fugitive president, Rafael Correa, thus became the

second candidate assassinated during the campaign

.

Two other candidates in different parts of the country also suffered attacks the day before.

"What is happening in Ecuador is really a nightmare. What did they do to you, Homeland!" Correa protested from his refuge in Europe.

Ecuador is suffering a wave of violence that has not stopped growing since the pandemic had a devastating impact on its society.

Guayaquil, the so-called

Pearl of the Pacific

, astonished the world at the beginning of the epidemic with hundreds of corpses dumped in the streets, morgues and hospitals.

But in parallel to the fight against the coronavirus, drug violence became strong on the Ecuadorian coast until it became

the epicenter of crime in Latin America

.

"These acts of sabotage and terrorism are a declaration of open war against the Government and against the citizens," declared the first president, Guillermo Lasso, after the attacks with explosives against policemen in Guayaquil that carried the signature of the Mexican drug traffickers of the Cartel Jalisco New Generation.

Violence in the streets and in prisons has triggered the

feeling of insecurity to unknown limits

.

Situated between the two major cocaine producers, Colombia and Peru, the Andean country has become a key strategic point for drug trafficking and its circuits to the US and Europe.

The tentacles of organized crime reach prisons, where massacres and revenge have proliferated before the terrified eyes of Ecuadorians.

In prisons, not only is there fighting, but part of the activity of criminal groups is also managed in the absence of a State that is not enough to impose internal order in the face of rampant corruption.

Images never seen before, with

drones bombing prisons

, as well as car bombs in the streets, beheadings and corpses hanging on the bridges in

the style of the Mexican drug lords

.

The videos of the most violent actions, recorded by cameras installed in streets or stores, later travel through social networks and increase the fears of a population

The figures have confirmed that it is not just about the fear that Ecuadorians feel.

In 2022 the homicide rate shot up to historical records, the most violent year in its history:

4,603 deaths

, 25 per 100,000 inhabitants, only surpassed by the countries with the worst records and with an increase of 114% compared to 2021.

"Ecuador is going through a complex moment, with a government that has shown signs of not having a clear objective in its management. The country's economy is more stable and that allows citizens to have some peace of mind. However, issues of security, linked to drug trafficking, are really serious. There are many elements of the institutional structure of the State at all levels that are allies of crime and act in its favor.

The Government does not show strength or decision-making capacity to solve security problems the organized mafia

, prisons, common crime, which overwhelm the average citizen accustomed to living in a safer and friendlier environment", summarizes

Michel Leví for EL MUNDO

, coordinator of the Andean Center for International Studies.

Given the national drift, Lasso wanted to counterattack with two questions in the referendum that, according to all the polls, will be approved:

extradition to the US and the appointment of prosecutors

.

Two insufficient tools for the fight against drug trafficking, as has already been demonstrated in neighboring Colombia and in Mexico.

"Insecurity is combated with a national agreement. We have never before lived between fear, due to uncertainty, and anger, because many people want to solve the problem with the law of retaliation," says political scientist

César Ulloa-Tapia

.

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  • Ecuador

  • Europe

  • USA

  • Colombia

  • coronavirus

  • Mexico

  • THE WORLD

  • Peru

  • Rafael Correa

  • Covid 19

  • Masks

  • Lockdown

  • de-escalation

  • deconfinement

  • new normal