Security analysts point to a chain of mistakes in the last 15 years in the country. The National Intelligence Unit was dismantled (2009), during the government of Rafael Correa.
February 14, 2022 could be the beginning of a new series of violent events in Ecuador, after the bodies of two men were found in Durán, Guayas province, hanging from a pedestrian bridge.
One of the dead was reported missing., two days before, and has no criminal record, according to the National Police. He says that he already has a first hypothesis, the same one with which violent deaths inside and outside prisons have been justified: the drug seizure.
But the violence that Ecuador is experiencing is nothing more than the result of 15 years of neglect and of the dismantling of police intelligence institutions Y from the base of Manta (2009), during the government by Raphael Correa.
This is how two professors and security experts describe it: Daniel Pontón and Esteban Altamirano, who also decipher what does it mean to hang bodies from bridges; a practice that became popular in Mexico since 2008, during the clashes between the Beltrán Leyva Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel, of Chapo Guzman.
The message is not only for the State
Pontón says that it is undeniable that these are acts that start from violence in prisonswhich, unable to contain itself, move to the streets.
The objective, says Altamirano, is to make an affront to the Government. “The current passivity of prisons, in quotes, is due to a series of actions outside. The Government runs behind the facts and does not prevent. We have to ask ourselves if these are distractions so that from the prisons there is a new riot, for example, ”he points out.
But Pontoon says that there is another motivation to commit these acts. Is about scare the public to realize extortion methods in the communities. The calls ‘vaccines’ to business commercial, for example. And Altamirano adds that it is a start towards kidnappings to demand money and, in the near future, “negotiate like this with the Government.”
From monitoring drug trafficking to opponents
Pontón says that the government of Lenín Moreno was warned that the lack of containment in the prisons would take its toll on the country. While Altamirano says that there is a lack of state protection of security, for 15 yearsyes “While we were losing protection, they made us believe that we were an island of peace,” he adds.
Among the main antecedents is the dismantling of the National Police Special Investigations Unit (UIES) which, since the 1990s, had created alliances with Colombia, Mexico, Peru and the United States to combat drug trafficking.
In the documentary, ‘Cabos Sueltos’, Manuel Silva, former commander of the UIES, explained that in October 2007 they seized four tons of cocaine from the FARC, with the entry of a plane that without authorization was in the hangar presidencyl. The plane left Ecuador and was detained in Mexico and it was determined that it had the member help of the National Police and of government from then (Rafael Correa), What Jose Ignacio Chauvinwho repeatedly denied having received money from the FARC, but did have any contact with them.
Altamirano assures that when officials from the government of former President Correa were involved with drug trafficking, that “caused discomfort.” The UIES ceased to function and was created the Senain to which, in the seven years that it worked, $310 million was assigned. “Ecuador went from monitoring drug trafficking, to dedicate itself to monitoring opponents”, highlights Altamirano.
no air control
In 2009, not only was the Intelligence Unit eliminated to be replaced by the SNAI. The withdrawal of the Manta base also took place.
Mario Pazmiño, who in 2008 was director of Army Intelligence, assured, in an interview with the BBC, that “insecurity, with the departure of the Manta Base, is going to affect the entire process that was being followed by USA in the region in relation to the fight against drug trafficking”.
According to Pazmiño, “this type of strategy used by the FARC benefits them, because if they remove all the US bases from the regional context, they will undoubtedly facilitate the management of drug trafficking in the region.”
measures without effect
The government of Guillermo Lasso declared the hills of Montecristi and San Isidro, in Manabi, as a reserved military defense area. In Montecristi a radar was installed that exploded in November 2021.
“Of what just happened we do not have absolute certaintyI cannot say that an attack has taken place, although it is most likely,” said Guillermo Lasso, when asked about the radar. There are currently open investigations into the case. (AVV)
“Possibly we will see many more hanging corpses. It is sought (criminal groups) to make an affront with respect to the domain of the State”, Daniel Pontón, doctor in social sciences and security expert.
