QUITO, Ecuador – Ecuadorians voted on Sunday in a referendum praised by the country’s new president as a way to crack down on criminal gangs behind a rising wave of violence.
Although the official results were slow to be counted, an exit poll revealed that Ecuadorians voted overwhelmingly “yes” to all nine questions focused on strengthening security measures. They rejected only two proposals focused on more controversial economic measures, the survey indicated.
Among the measures apparently destined for approval is President Daniel Noboa’s call to mobilize the army in the fight against gangs, to loosen obstacles to the extradition of accused criminals and to lengthen prison sentences for convicted drug traffickers.
If electoral authorities confirm exit poll projections, it would be a resounding victory and a sign of support for Noboa.
Ecuador was traditionally one of the most peaceful countries in South America, but has been rocked in recent years by a wave of violence, much of it spilling over into neighboring Colombia, the world’s biggest cocaine producer. Last year, the country’s homicide rate soared to 40 deaths per 100,000 people, one of the highest in the region.
Noboa gained popular support by confronting the gangs head on. That task became more urgent in January, when masked gunmen, some on the orders of imprisoned drug traffickers, terrorized residents and took control of a television station while it was on the air, in an unprecedented show of force.
Following the violence, the 36-year-old president decreed an “internal armed conflict”, allowing him to use emergency powers to mobilize the army in pursuit of around 20 gangs now classified as “terrorists”.
The referendum, in which 13 million Ecuadorians were asked to vote, seeks to expand these powers and place them on a more solid legal basis.
Noboa, before the final count, celebrated the result. “We defend the country,” he said in a message published on social media. “Now we will have more tools to fight against criminals and restore peace to families in Ecuador.”
Noboa’s law-and-order rhetoric recalls the policies of El Salvador’s wildly popular president, Nayib Bukele, a fellow millennial, and could give him a political boost as he prepares to run for re-election next year.
Noboa, a scion of a wealthy banana-exporting family, is serving the final 18 months of a presidential term left vacant when fellow conservative Guillermo Lasso resigned amid a congressional investigation into corruption allegations. Noboa was elected after a short but bloody campaign that saw one of his main rivals brazenly murdered during the campaign.
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