Ecuadorian lawmakers will today call on Interior Minister Monica Palencia and Defence Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo to appear in court due to persistent insecurity in the coastal province of Manabi.

A total of 11 parliamentarians representing this territory signed a document in which they announce that they will ask the plenary of the National Assembly (parliament) to approve a summons to the aforementioned officials this Tuesday.

The appearance of these authorities will allow the assembly members and the public to know the progress and challenges in terms of security, as well as to evaluate the policies implemented, the document states.

The province of Manabí is one of the six territories in Ecuador where a state of emergency is in force and where the government has moved the headquarters of the so-called Security Bloc, which brings together the Ministry of the Interior, the Defence Ministry, the Armed Forces and the National Police.

There, specifically in the city of Manta, three people were murdered in a restaurant last Saturday night, including a young couple who orphaned a four-year-old child.

However, the security problems are not limited to Manabí, as there have been 16 murders per day so far this year, according to official figures published in the local media.

This Monday, three fishermen were killed in the canton of El Guabo, in the province of El Oro, where a state of emergency is also in force.

Despite such incidents, Minister Palencia told a press conference that from 1 January to 21 July there were 774 fewer murders than in the same period last year.

According to the official, there has been a «sharp reduction» in this type of crime, with 3,369 murders reported so far in 2024.

The authorities blame drug gangs for the wave of violence that has made this South American nation one of the most insecure in the world, with 47.2 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, according to the Ecuadorian Observatory of Organised Crime.

Ecuador has declared an internal armed conflict, a provision with which President Daniel Noboa accompanied last January’s declaration of a nationwide state of emergency to curb insecurity and organised crime.