QUITO: Ecuadorians headed to the polls Sunday in a referendum touted by the nation’s fledgling chief as a option to crack down on prison gangs behind a spiraling wave of violence. Nearly all of 11 questions posed to voters deal with tightening safety measures. Proposals embrace deploying the military within the struggle in opposition to the gangs, loosening obstacles to extradition of accused criminals and lengthening jail sentences for convicted drug traffickers. Ecuador, historically one in all South America’s most peaceable international locations, has been rocked in latest yr by a wave of violence, a lot of it spilling over from neighboring Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine. Final yr, the nation’s murder charge shot as much as 40 deaths per 100,000, one of many highest within the area. President Daniel Noboa has rallied fashionable assist by confronting the gangs head on. That activity turned extra pressing in January when masked gunmen, some on orders from imprisoned drug traffickers, terrorized residents and took management of a tv station whereas it was stay on the air in an unprecedented present of drive. Following the rampage, the 36-year-old chief decreed an “inner armed battle,” enabling him to make use of emergency powers to deploy the military in pursuit of about 20 gangs now categorized as “terrorists.” The referendum seeks to increase these powers and put them on firmer authorized floor. “We will not stay in worry of leaving our properties,” mentioned Leonor Sandoval, a 39-year-old homemaker, after voting for all 11 of the proposals. Outcomes had been anticipated Sunday night. However in recalling the law-and-order insurance policies of El Salvador’s wildly fashionable president, Nayib Bukele, a fellow millennial, they may additionally enhance Noboa politically as he prepares to run for reelection subsequent yr. Noboa, the scion of a rich banana exporting household, is serving the ultimate 18 months of a presidential time period left vacant when fellow conservative Guillermo Lasso resigned amid an investigation into alleged corruption by congress. He was elected following a shortened however bloody marketing campaign that noticed one in all his high rivals openly assassinated whereas campaigning.
