Ecuador’s president, Guillermo Lasso, has declared a state of emergency in the provinces of Guayas and Esmeraldas following the alleged murder of five policemen in a day of violence in the cities of Guayaquil and Durán in which up to twelve attacks, some with explosive devices, have been reported.
After canceling a trip to the United States, the Ecuadorian president has issued a message on national television announcing a state of emergency and a curfew in two provinces of the country for 45 days, as reported by ‘El Comercio’.
Lasso has qualified as «sabotage and terrorism» the violent acts occurred during this Tuesday, maintaining that «they are a declaration of war against the Government» and the citizens.
In this sense, the Ecuadorian president has affirmed that before his government «drug crime lived in a paradise» and now «feels uncomfortable», warning that his government is not afraid of them, as reported by ‘El Telégrafo’.
Likewise, the Ecuadorian president will lead the command post to be installed in Guayaquil to deal with the wave of violence.
According to data offered by the country’s authorities, the province of Guayas, where Guayaquil is located, concentrates 62 percent of the explosive attacks registered in the country.
For his part, Ecuador’s president, Guillermo Lasso, has canceled a scheduled trip to the United States from Wednesday to Sunday to continue leading the frontal fight against the threat posed to the country by drug trafficking and organized gangs.
«The National Government’s priority is to guarantee peace for Ecuadorians, so it is confronting head-on this serious problem inherited from previous governments that were permissive and did not act against organized crime,» said the General Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency.
This wave of nighttime violence came just a day after rumors surfaced about the possible transfer of prisoners from the Litoral Penitentiary, the scene of several violent episodes in the last year in which dozens of inmates have died.
