Ecuador has The highest homicide rate in Latin Americawith 38.8 per 100,000 inhabitants. The authorities have recognized that despite the military deployment in the streets to combat drug traffickers and the declaration of a “Internal armed conflict state“, The beginning of 2025 has been calamitoso: Only in January 781 murders were registered276 more than in 2024. If the lucrative facts of the first quarter are computed the number triples amid the horror of a citizenship that feels hostage of the territorial disputes of the criminal groups. In this context, President Daniel Noboa has gone from warrior enthusiasm to an implicit recognition of his failure. Less than a month from the second turn in front of the correist Luisa González, the president has decided to give a surprising blow of effect: the virtual privatization of your security scheme. “Organized crime has sown fear and has believed that it can operate impunity Your meeting with Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, Una company security that provides mercenaries. “We have established a strategic alliance to strengthen our abilities in the fight against drug trafficking and the protection of our illegal fishing waters.” Noboa was also in favor of a participation of the armies of the United States and Europe in the fight against organized crime.
Prince’s name sounds the alarm of human rights organizations. The participation of contractors in Iraq by the United States is associated with lucuitous events such as the killing of 17 civilians in Baghdad, during a diplomatic escort operation, in 2007. Those responsible were convicted and then pardoned by Donald TrumP during his first mandate. Prince sold the company, but did not get rid of his control.
Military millesTar
Noboa wants the Blackwater founder to participate in the operational redesign of the Armed Forces and the Police. Prince’s treat does not seem to have raised enthusiasm inside the uniformed. “The exit to this dead end With the proposal of mercenaries, Not only is it politically unacceptable, legally inapplicable, but absurd and crazy in every way. To the final, we are in the new Ecuador, where any barbarity is justified, “said the former army, Luis Altamirano. In his opinion, Noboa is imprisoned by his” political marketing team. “Other voices manifested.”What can a group of mercenarians advise the public force? “The retired colonel Patricio Pazmiñi asked. The arrival of the security company would be the recognition that Noboa was not only unable to fulfill what he had promised, a true control of the public space and the defeat of the narcos, both in the streets and in the prisons, but also exposes the military to the ridiculous. The military institutions recovered throughout 2024 Córdova, it was not seen since 1995, when they faced the Peruvian troops by a borderline difference.
Debate between candidates
Noboa’s play is registered within a kind of Race against time. In the first turn of February, the predictions of a wide triumph at the polls were not fulfilled: he ended up tied with González who, in the face of April 13, has achieved The support of the indigenous movement which has historically oppose Rafael Correa.
This Sunday will take place the first debate among the contestants. Among the consensual thematic axes is the security issue. A recent survey by the Tres Punto Zero consultant realizes that The center -left aspiring would get 53.9% of the votesagainst 46% of the official candidate. The figures have caused stupor in the government that had not contemplated a scenario of defeat under any circumstance.
