Ecuador votes on anticrime referendum amid soaring violence
Al Jazeera
The majority of 11 questions posed to voters on Sunday focus on tightening security measures.
Ecuadorians have begun voting in a referendum on proposed tougher measures to fight gang-related crime as the country faces rising violence that has seen two mayors killed in a week.
The majority of 11 questions posed to voters on Sunday focus on tightening security measures. Proposals include deploying the army in the fight against the gangs, loosening obstacles to extradition of accused criminals and lengthening prison sentences for convicted drug traffickers.
The rising insecurity in Ecuador has been blamed on gangs with links to transnational cartels using its ports to ship drugs to the United States and Europe.
The results of Sunday’s referendum “will define the course and the state policy that we will take in order to face the challenge of fighting against violence and organized crime”, said President Daniel Noboa as voting began at the Electoral Council in the capital Quito.
Noboa declared in January a state of “internal armed conflict” with about 20 criminal groups blamed for a spasm of violence prompted by the jailbreak of a drug boss, still on the run.
