The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, appointed as the new Minister of Defense the general (in retirement) Luis Hernández and decreed, hours later, the state of emergency in the face of the wave of violence that shakes the South American country.
Lasso said that his country is experiencing “a period of insecurity that has as its origin several factors, one of them drug trafficking, from which even the consumption of drugs in schools and colleges is derived. Many young people who painfully fall into drug addiction, to combat this it is necessary to have a stronger, stronger and more committed Armed Forces to that goal.”
The new head of the Defense Ministry said that the threats are internal, caused by crime and the insecurity of drug trafficking, so the Armed Forces will work to dismantle these structures and annul those threats.
In this way, from today, the Armed Forces will take control of the streets in the main cities and towns of the country, in order to reinforce security.