Ecuadoreans to vote in referendum on unprecedented security measures | Ecuador | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/21/ecuador-referendum-vote-security-measuresEcuadoreans will vote on Sunday in a referendum on a raft of unprecedented security measures designed to empower the police and armed forces in the fight against spiralling violence and organised crime.
Voters must accept or reject 11 questions, mostly about security, in the plebiscite, which is being seen as a test of support for Ecuador’s popular young president. Daniel Noboa who took office in November on the pledge to combat the surge in violent crime, put forward the poll to push through proposals to retake control of prisons and tame soaring homicide rates.
Long seen as an oasis of peace compared to its neighbours, Ecuador last year became the most violent country in South America with a record number of about 8,000 homicides. The number of violent deaths has grown eightfold in just six years as bloodshed between warring drug gangs spilled from jails onto the streets.
Noboa, who took office in November on the pledge to combat the surge in violent crime, declared a state of “internal armed conflict” in January, designating 22 drug trafficking gangs as terrorist groups and authorising Ecuador’s military to “neutralise” the crime factions “within the bounds of international humanitarian law”.
Since then, the 36-year-old son of a banana billionaire has ordered the armed forces onto the streets and presided over the arrest of tens of thousands of people accused of links to organised crime.