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Ecuadorian flag/Archive photography
The Ecuadorian capital prohibited starting this Thursday the carrying of white weaponsin public spaces, he reported Mayor Santiago Guarderas, in a measure taken in the face of the increase in crime linked to drug trafficking in that country, which includes fines for offenders.
“It will not be possible now in the district (Metropolitan of Quito) that people use knives, use screwdrivers, use all kinds of weapons that put the safety and lives of our inhabitants at risk,” he said. Guarderas in a video broadcast by the municipality on its Twitter account.
According to councilman Bernardo Abad, people found carrying knives will be sanctioned with half a basic salary, which in Ecuador is 425 dollars. to a salary when offenders are in tourist places, parks or on public transport.
The resolution also prohibits the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages in public spaces.
Guarderas said that the city council of Quito, the most populous city in the country with some three million inhabitants, is also working on an ordinance to veto the circulation of two people on motorcycles.
This “is the task that the council has to do to ensure that these levels of insecurity that Quito is experiencing can decrease,” he said.
In 2021, the Ecuadorian capital recorded ; 169 murdersand in the first five months of 2022, 52 have been reported. Robberies rose from 5,069 cases last year to 6,292 so far this year.
Ecuador faces an increase in violence criminal and drug trafficking. The country closed 2021 with a rate of14 murders per 100,000 people, almost double that of 2020.
For many years, the nation remained relatively safe from the violence of its neighbors Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest producers of cocaine. But in recent years drug seizures have increased. In 2021 the country seized The record of 210 tons of drugs.
So far this year, seizures have reached 90 tons, according to the Police.
To try stop the violence, the government of President Guillermo Lasso declared On April 30, a state of emergency was declared for 60 days in the coastal provinces of