The content of Executive Decrees 110 and 111, published on January 8 and 9, illustrate how governments create confusion in the context of what has been known as the “War on Drugs” for decades now.
Decree 110 cites a National Police (PN, in its Spanish acronym) report that alleges that 91 percent of the 8,008 homicides committed last year “are attributed to criminal violence, which is mainly related to Threats and Drug Trafficking (both internal and international).” Neither the PN report nor the methodology used to determine which homicides are linked to drug trafficking have been made public.
According to the UN’s Global Study on Homicide 2023, less than five percent of the homicides that took place in Ecuador in 2021 were related to organized crime.
While there is no doubt that Ecuador’s murder rate has risen sharply over the past four years, there is cause to doubt the PN’s move to blame organized crime groups for the increase in deaths. This is especially true when they fail to provide corroborating evidence and in a context of high levels of impunity, particularly in cases of violence perpetrated by security forces.
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