Andean Ministers To Discuss Cross-border Crime As Ecuador Reels

Lima, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Jan, 2024) Foreign, interior and defence ministers of Andean countries will hold an urgent meeting this weekend to discuss the problem of cross-border drug crime that has plunged Ecuador into a security crisis, Peru's government said Monday.

Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otarola told reporters the meeting in Lima on Sunday will focus on ways to confront transnational crime.

"We have to stop drug trafficking, which is the main source of financing for this problem that has generated death, chaos and anxiety in our neighbour" Ecuador, he said.

Ministers from Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador will take part, seeking to deepen cooperation via national "intelligence systems, police and the armed forces... in the common fight against organized crime," Otarola said.

Once a bastion of peace nestled between the world's largest cocaine producers -- Colombia and Peru -- Ecuador has recently been plunged into crisis after years of expansion by transnational cartels.

The latest violence was triggered by the escape from Guayaquil prison just over a week ago of one of Ecuador's most powerful narcotics gang bosses.

The government declared a state of emergency and countrywide curfew, infuriating gangsters who launched several deadly attacks and took dozens of hostages, most of whom have since been freed.

By Sunday, Ecuador's security forces said they had taken control of several prisons back from gangs and reported more than 1,300 arrests, eight "terrorists" killed and 27 escaped inmates recaptured.

Peru and Colombia reinforced security on their borders in light of the outbreak of violence, which has claimed at least 19 lives in their neighbour.

Drug violence is taking a terrible toll on young people in Ecuador, with the murder rate among children and adolescents soaring to at least 770, a rise of 640 percent compared to four years earlier, UNICEF said Monday, quoting the Ecuadoran interior ministry.

Forced recruitment of children by drug gangs is also on the rise, said the United Nations Children's Agency Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, which is based in Panama.

Drug violence is also denying minors access to basics like health care and education, the agency said.