QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuador will ask its citizens to vote in a 2023 consultation to reform its justice system, President Guillermo Lasso said on Tuesday, amid accusations that decisions by judges are holding back efforts to fight crime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Violence and crime, including within the prison system, soared in Ecuador late last year. The government has blamed the violence on drug gangs who use the country as a transit point for narcotics headed to the United States and Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“I don’t think anyone is happy with justice in Ecuador,” Lasso said in a interview broadcast on his social media channels. “We are working on the issue of a popular consultation and we could make it coincide with regional elections in 2023.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Conservative Lasso had declared a state of emergency, which ended in mid-December, and deployed hundreds of soldiers in violent areas, though citizens and analysts say boots on the ground fail to confront the poverty and poor policing underlying the violence https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/americas\/ecuadoreans-say-presidents-crackdown-gangs-fails-curb-violence-2021-12-15.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/react-trigger><\/p>\n Lasso reiterated his criticism of decisions and sentencing by judges which allow immediate freedom for detainees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “It impacts the insecurity that comes from all this illegal drug trafficking activity,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The consultation would ask voters to determine clear functions for the entities that make up the judicial system, Lasso said, and ask about citizen safety efforts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “We need strong institutional justice to promote foreign investment in Ecuador,” Lasso said. “So we are seen as a country which is absolutely serious about administering justice with total impartiality.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The proposal comes a week after the United States embassy in Quito canceled U.S. visas for several judges and other judicial personnel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The embassy said in a statement at the time it would continue to use its authority to advance efforts in anti-corruption and the fight against organized crime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nPolitical Cartoons on World Leaders <\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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