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🇻🇪 Venezuela /Crime & Justice

Ecuador deploys 13,000 troops to combat organized crime in four provinces

From El Nacional · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified Ongoing story
  • Ecuador has deployed 13,000 military personnel to four provinces to combat organized crime and drug trafficking mafias.
  • The deployment follows President Daniel Noboa's signing of a new state of exception decree covering nearly half the country.
  • The operation aims to intensify patrols, tighten controls on weapons and explosives, and conduct tactical assaults against criminal groups in key drug trafficking corridors.

Ecuador has mobilized 13,000 members of its Armed Forces to four provinces identified as having the highest crime rates, in a significant move to bolster security and combat organized crime. This deployment is a direct response to the escalating violence linked to drug trafficking mafias.

The operation commenced immediately after President Daniel Noboa signed a new decree establishing a state of exception, which now encompasses almost half of the nation's territory. Military units are being temporarily redeployed from areas with lower crime incidence to focus on the coastal provinces of Guayas, Manabí, and El Oro, as well as the tropical province of Los Ríos.

The objective is to primarily reduce violent deaths and gain control of the cities categorized as most violent.

— General Mauro BedoyaHead of the Air and Space Operations Command of the Ecuadorian Air Force, explaining the goals of the military deployment.

These strategically important regions serve as key logistical corridors for criminal gangs smuggling drugs to markets in Europe and North America. The military's intensified efforts will include enhanced land and riverine patrols, stricter controls on weapons, ammunition, and explosives, and targeted raids on local armed groups. General Mauro Bedoya, head of the Air and Space Operations Command of the Ecuadorian Air Force (FAE), emphasized the priority of this massive deployment during the reception of 210 uniformed personnel at the Guayaquil air base.

Approximately 6,000 soldiers will be permanently stationed in Guayas, a province that had already recorded 1,521 of Ecuador's total 3,485 homicides by May. "The objective is to primarily reduce violent deaths and gain control of the cities categorized as most violent," Bedoya stated. "The objective is to give our population that perception of security," he added. This large-scale troop movement aligns with President Noboa's declaration of a "total war" against organized crime, reinforcing the existing "internal armed conflict" status with new legal powers that could permit foreign troops under specific conditions, though no foreign contingents have been confirmed to be on Ecuadorian soil yet.

The objective is to give our population that perception of security.

— General Mauro BedoyaHead of the Air and Space Operations Command of the Ecuadorian Air Force, on the impact of the security measures.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by El Nacional in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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