In just a few years, the number of murders in Ecuador has increased from five to 45 per 100,000 inhabitants.
The incredible spiral of violence culminated in a few intense January days when the country’s most feared gang leader, Fito, escaped from a prison in Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil, gang members stormed a television studio and, in a wave of violence, effectively turned Guayaquil into a burning inferno.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa responded by declaring a state of emergency and declaring war on 22 gangs and then calling in the military in an attempt to stop the wave of violence – a move that has wide popular support.
Over 11,000 arrested
Since the declaration of war, more than 11,000 people have been arrested and more than 64 tons of drugs – the gangs’ economic engine – have been seized. It has had an effect: a calm, if deceptive, has settled over Ecuador.
– It’s very good. Only the military can bring order to the criminality that oppresses us. It had come to a point where we could no longer work and live in peace anymore, because of the gangs and their murders, says Julio Seminario, to TV4 Nyheterna.
But experts have warned that the state of emergency, which involves a night-time curfew and a constant military presence on the streets, has been thumbed down by human rights groups who have warned of excessive violence and abuse of power.
Since January, several cases of torture and ill-treatment in connection with military interventions have been reported.
– What we see is a sharp increase in direct violations of human rights, says Fernando Bastias, at the Committee for Human Rights in Guayaquil.
Lost his son
In one of Guayaquil’s cemeteries, Carlos Vega and Laura Ipanaqué cry. It is the first time they visit the place where their 19-year-old son Javier is buried. He was shot dead by the military with four shots when he and his cousin did not stop the car during a check. Javier died, unpunished, unarmed and unconnected to gang crime.
– The military must not make such mistakes, says Carlos Vega.
– They must be experienced, well-trained and professional. If they could have arrested him, he would have been able to explain why he didn’t stop. We demand that his death be investigated. Because the way they killed him, no boy deserves to die.
Laura Ipanaqué wonders how many more families will go through the grief she is going through now, in Daniel Noboa’s war on the gangs – to which no one yet sees any end.
– How many more mothers will have to go to their sons’ graves?