Ecuador chooses the president against the background of the gang violence

“The whole city feels like it is in pandemia, closed without being able to go out and enjoy our lives for violence.”

So “Jorge” – not his real name – feels towards his neighborhood of Guayaquil, a city in southern Ecuador.

His father, Marcos Elías León Maruri, was abducted by Banda Los Tiguerones.

The person is killed every two hours in Ecuador, and seven are difficult daily, according to government data.

Because of this, security is the main issue for voters ahead of the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, in which 15 more candidates have caused the current Daniel Nobo.

Whoever wins will be in charge of restoring safety to the country, which has exceeded one of the safest to the most dangerous in the region.

The bust of violence partially comes down to the location of Ecuador, and a great demand for cocaine in the largest drugs like USA, UK and Europe.

A large part of the world cocaine, from the leaves of coca grown in Colombia and Peru, leaves the continent through the ports of Ecuador and the powerful gang of struggle to control this lucrative path.

Many of these gangs are also involved in the ransom abduction.

Mr. Maruri was one of their victims.

A few hours after it was seized, Jorge received the text. Read, “I have your father. How much will you pay for your family’s life?”

The next morning he received a video showing that his father had tied his finger cut off.

The gang initially sought $ 100,000 (80,000 pounds).

Jorge did not have him and began to negotiate: “They wanted $ 30,000 or would cut his second finger.”

Jorge scored to offer them $ 5,000 and his television, playstation and car.

Just as the kidnappers agreed on the handover, the police called him. They found a corpse like his father.

“They left my father’s body with a finger in a bottle tied to his hand – like a derision.”

Jorge’s life has been revealed since then. He rarely leaves his home, now a glued CCTV cameras that he eagerly monitors.

His wife and daughter fled the country. He no longer goes to work because the gang knows at the location.

The current government under President Daniel Nobo responded to an increase in violence by militarizing the streets, giving the police an enhanced authority to use forces and attacks of buildings, and the construction of new prison of maximum security.

Jorge supports these measures, but criticizes the judicial system.

“The government works hard against corruption and a lot of police equipment. But there is no use if the judicial system releases them. They take care more about their rights than ours.”

While some, like Jorge, are returning to Noboa’s measures, others consider them to allow human rights violations – key tension in this election.

I put this to Major Cristiano Aldaz, from federal police, during a raid in the city of Durán, who was pushing for violence, because they had strongly armed security forces of the accused of abduction and murder.

“Human rights, yes, but what about human rights for good people? We are in war. The mafia uses machine guns, shells. Militarization aims to establish peace,” he says.

The polls still have Noboa as an anterior runner, but has lost in recent months on the chief rival, Luis González from the movement of the left civic revolution.

On the trail of the campaign, González promised to train on human rights for security forces – although it also expressed support for militarization and stricter police jobs, including the promise of 20,000 new officers.

There is a particular one case that makes many Ecuadorea of ​​the color of non -selective use of force by security forces.

Last year, the army seized four teenagers because of the alleged theft when they returned from playing football.

Their mutilated, burned bodies were later found.

Sixteen soldiers have been detained and accused of the boy’s “forced disappearance” and are under investigation.

They deny it, saying that they eventually released the boys.

The bedroom of two boys – Ismael and Josué Arroyo – is typical of many teenagers: full of clothing and football posters.

Their father Luis squeezes football boots with raw sadness. It is as if he cannot believe that the feet of his sons will no longer fill them.

“Ismael wanted to fulfill his dream of a professional footballer. The dream that these soldiers took away,” he cries.

The only recognizable remains to the left of Ismael and Josué were finger and foot.

Luis’s anger and upset about the soldiers is clear.

“It’s not like they caught and killed four dogs. They took four children. Then they went home for dinner.”

“We want justice,” he adds. “The children still take the army and the government does nothing.”

The anger that the case aroused may lead some people to try to punish President Nobo on the ballot box.

Luisa González, a woman who hopes to win Nobo, requested justice and resignation of the Government for the death of a boy.

Some voters claim that Noboa policies just don’t work.

A public transport worker in Durán, who did not want to be named, says gangs invite him to extort money even from prison of maximum security.

Describes how band members force drivers to pay “vacuums” (Spanish for vaccines, an expression that refers to daily extortion fees) to avoid attacks.

“There are colleagues who have already bankrupt. I haven’t worked since they almost killed me,” he tells me.

Other critics point to a bad economy, and especially the high unemployment of young people make young people vulnerable to gang employment.

Slow answers to last year’s drought also worsened difficulties throughout the country, which rely on the hydroenergy current by 80% of their electricity, and currents of electricity lasted up to 2 pm.

One of the affected was Christian Guerrero.

The 40-year-old, who lives in the poorer neighborhood of Guayaquila, says that the constant darkenings broke his refrigerator and his TV.

Agrees with the opposition that there is no “plan” that would prevent further interruption.

The elections appear one year after the President of the Noboa militarizing the country through emergency decrees.

For Carlos and Laura Ipaneque, it has also been about a year since their son Carlos Javier Vega was killed.

He would destroy himself at the checkpoint when he heard shots and drove away, instead of stopping, causing the army to shoot him.

His parents illustrate the dilemma of a bad-loser that many Ecuadoreans feel.

They live on the street closed in prison, their house surrounded by metal bars, terrified of gang violence.

“The crime continues, the robberies continue, the abductions continue, the extortion continues,” Laura explains.

But some are now afraid and bans.

“I don’t want other people to have the pain we have,” Laura says through tears.

For many voters, these elections depend on whether they consider the problem worse than the drug.