The European Union (UE) will support Ecuador to establish an information and intelligence exchange center with all state agencies and institutions involved in the fight against drug trafficking in order to stop the shipment of cocaine abroad, through ports in contaminated containers.
“For the first time we will help the Ecuadorian authorities to have different agencies working together, but also with the possibility of having some international agents cooperating with them,” he said in an interview with EFE the head of the Foreign Policy Instruments Service of the European Commission, Peter Wagner.
«We want to help the authorities in their fight against global drug trafficking, because Ecuador has unfortunately become a transit point for drugs on their way to Europaand where we want to help significantly in addressing this issue,” he added Wagner.
In this way, he indicated that there is a principle of agreement for the EU to allocate ten million euros from Recovery and Resilience Mechanismalthough it still has to go through the corresponding approvals in Brussels.
Guayaquil, priority in joining efforts
On a recent visit to Ecuadormade the previous week, Wagner had the chance to tour the port of Guayaquilwhich the mafias have turned into one of the great springboards to bring cocaine to Europaand where this joint office is expected to operate.
“In Guayaquil is the link (organized crime) that we have to break with unitary work in the port,” he added.
Through the contamination of containers under the façade of export products, large shipments of tons of cocaine have been detected heading to ports such as those of Antwerp (Belgium), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Hamburg (Germany) y Algeciras y Valencia (Spain), and more.
“It is important to really work on cooperation between all agencies,” he commented. Wagnerwhich stressed that “the information that already exists be used better, and more efficiently, so that international authorities can also help more quickly.”
The European official recalled that “there are conversations between Ecuador y Europol to implement an agreement (of cooperation and exchange of information) that has already been signed”, and in which it is being negotiated “how data will be exchanged.
Advances in prison management
In recent years, the UE allocated 2.5 million euros (2.7 million dollars) to fortify the prison system of Ecuadorafter Ecuadorian prisons became the epicenter of the security crisis when they came under the control of criminal gangs, whose disputes have caused a series of prison massacres with more than 450 prisoners murdered between 2020 and 2022.
Wagner indicated that these funds made it possible to carry out an analysis of the situation with a census, as well as help with the training of 1,400 new prison guards and the design of a new, more updated prison system with the assistance of experts from countries that have gone through experiences such as Italia, Belgium, Portugal and also Chileto transfer best practices.
These advances – Wagner maintained – were reflected in the second International Consensus Conference for Penitentiary and Citizen Security of Ecuadorcarried out in Quito the previous week, where the UE brought together state authorities and international experts to evaluate the progress of the last meeting held in 2022 and agree on strategies for the coming years.
Rise of violence and migration
For the European Commission official, the cooperation of the UE con Ecuador It is vital because “we are talking about a huge criminal ecosystem that has lots of elements” that already impact the European bloc.
«We are seeing that violent activities have not only increased in recent months and that they have not only spread from prisons to society Ecuador and to other parts of the region, but also to Europa«, I comment.
He also stressed that the deterioration of living conditions, especially for young people, and the lack of hope of having a normal life, encourage migration, especially “if you do not want to cooperate with criminal gangs and become part of their system”.
“We believe that people should first of all be able to have a decent life where they come from and where they want to be, so there are several elements that we clearly see that can impact us in Europa“he indicated Wagner.
According to Vistazo Magazinethe European official also warned that “the European Union “He will have to continue his work on the demand aspect, because it is not only that the drugs are sold, it is also the demand that exists for those drugs.”
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