CNA Newsroom, Nov 7, 2022 / 16:15 pm
Drug trafficking gangs in Ecuador have reacted to the government’s efforts to retake control of the prisons by launching a series of attacks — including the use of car bombs — that have left several dead, including five police officers.
In an effort to quell the violence, on Nov. 4 the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, extended to the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas the state of emergency that has been in effect in the provinces of Las Guayas and Esmeraldas since Nov. 1.
The state of emergency suspends for 45 days the rights to freedom of association and assembly, the inviolability of the home, and personal correspondence. The decrees of Nov. 1 and 4 also establish a curfew from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.
In a Nov. 5 statement, the Ecuadorian bishops called on the crime gangs to stop the violence and to take the path to conversion.