EXPERT COMMENT
President Noboa faces the daunting task of rooting out narco-terrorism and corruption. The international community must step up to prevent the country losing this gang-declared war.
Rarely do the horrors of narco-terrorism play out so publicly as they did on 9 January in Ecuador. In response to a state of emergency declared by President Daniel Noboa a day earlier, criminal gangs seized a public television station, detonated bombs in major cities, kidnapped police officers and invaded a university. It was, in their words, a declaration of war against the government.
In the aftermath of the narco-terrorists' frightening display of force, Noboa promised to ramp up his war on domestic crime - imposing a curfew, naming 22 gangs in Ecuador as terrorist organizations, and calling on the military to oversee national security and the prison system.
But as the country struggles to regain control and provide security for its citizens, the world needs to realize that Ecuador's neighbours and Western countries bear some of the blame for Ecuador's tragedy - and must now support its democracy.
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