More than 8,600 people have been arrested in Ecuador in the 41 days of “internal armed conflict” that the president Daniel Noboa declared at the beginning of January against organized crime, whose gangs, dedicated mainly to drug trafficking, he began to consider as terrorist groups.
The number of detainees reached 8,694 in the latest daily balance published this Sunday by the Government of Ecuador, of which 241 were captured accused of “terrorism”while the same report indicates that More than 54 tons of drugs have been seized.
Until now the security forces They have carried out 107,081 joint operations (more than 2,600 each day), 155 of them against criminal gangs now called terrorist groups by the authorities.
In addition, 2,587 firearms, 12,437 explosives, 176,603 bullets, 1,273 bullet magazines and 3,731 knives have been seized.
During the state of emergency Law enforcement forces have killed 8 people whom they have identified as terrorists; Two members of the Police have died and no casualties have been recorded in the military ranks.
From submarines
The agents too They have seized 979 vehicles, 993 motorcycles and 28 boats from crime, including a semi-submersible to transport drugs.; in addition to $212,785.14.
The statistics maintain the figure of 34 recaptured inmates, of the almost 90 who escaped from the prisons where, at the beginning of the year, several prisoner riots occurred with 200 hostages between guards and police who managed to be released.
After declaring the “internal armed conflict,” the Government of President Daniel Noboa identified at least 22 transnational organized crime groups and classified them “as terrorist organizations” and “belligerent non-state actors.”
By identifying these groups as belligerents, the president opened a legal door for the Armed Forces together with the Police to act with all their resources to neutralize them.
The spiral of violence in Ecuador was unleashed in the midst of the application of the Government’s Phoenix Plan against crime.
Prisons
In principle, this strategy sought to regain control of prisons, many of them internally dominated by groups of criminalswhose rivalries left more than 450 prisoners murdered since 2020 in a series of prison massacres.
However, prison violence took to the streets until Ecuador became one of the most violent countries, with 45 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023. EFE
#detained #days #armed #conflict
