Weekly Report - 05 May 2022 (WR-22-18)

On the campaign trail ahead of last year’s election, Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso regularly touted the progressive approach to law and order that he intended to implement if elected. A year later, a serious surge in violent crime is prompting him to reach for tougher, militarised solutions. In the latest sign of this change of tack, on 29 April Lasso declared a 60-day state of exception in the coastal provinces of Guayas, Manabí, and Esmeraldas, which will see the deployment of 5,000 troops and the imposition of a nighttime curfew in some neighbourhoods.