What is an internal armed conflict like the one decreed in Ecuador by President Noboa?

The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, decreed on Tuesday that the entire country is in internal armed conflict and ordered the military forces to neutralize organized crime gangs linked to drug trafficking, which he described as terrorists. What does this measure imply?

On Tuesday, a criminal group broke into the canal TC Television of Guayaquil in full live broadcast. The hooded men intimidated, beat and held down the employees before being detained by the police. While this action was taking place, the president Noboa published on the social network X Decree 111 with which it seeks to end the wave of crime linked to drug trafficking that has plagued the country in recent years.

LOOK: Lobos, Choneros, Tiguerones: the list of the 22 criminal gangs identified as terrorists in Ecuador

In it Decree 111the government of Ecuador qualifies as “terrorists and belligerent non-state actors” to 22 criminal organizations. The list includes Águilas, ÁguilasKiller, AK47, Caballeros Oscuros, ChoneKiller, Choneros, Covicheros, Cuartel de las Feas, Cubanos, Fatales, Gánster, Kater Piler, Lagartos, Latin Kings, Lobos, Los p.27, Los Tiburones, Mafia 18 , Mafia Trébol, Patrones, R7 and Tiguerones.

“I have ordered the Armed Forces to carry out military operations to neutralize these groups,” wrote Noboa. He added that these actions will be carried out “under international humanitarian law and respecting human rights.”

Before taking TC Televisionon Sunday authorities confirmed that Adolfo Maciasalias Fito and leader of The Chonerosthe most dangerous criminal in the country, escaped from prison Guayaquil where he was being held to serve a 34-year prison sentence.

In parallel, numerous inmates rioted in several prisons in the country and took more than 100 prison officers hostage. Those deprived of liberty demand that the military forces not enter prisons.

So, the first reaction of Noboa was declare a state of emergency throughout the country and order a curfew between 11 at night and 5 in the morning.

At this point, it should be noted that in 2023 Ecuador closed with more than 7,800 homicides and 220 tons of drugs seizedBoth figures are records.

That is the context in which Daniel Noboawho assumed power in Ecuador on November 23, 2023, issued on Tuesday the decree declaring the internal armed conflict.

The measure orders “to arrange the mobilization and intervention of the Armed Forces and National Police in the national territory to guarantee sovereignty and territorial integrity against transnational organized crime, terrorist organizations and belligerent non-state actors as set forth in this Executive Decree.”

What is an internal armed conflict?

According to him International Humanitarian Law (IHL)a non-international (or “internal”) armed conflict It is a situation of violence that occurs in a State, where prolonged armed confrontations occur between government forces and one or more organized armed groups, or between irregular groups.

According to International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)in International Humanitarian Law the presence of two conditions is required to determine the existence of an internal armed conflict: armed groups must have a minimum level of organization and armed confrontations must reach a minimum level of intensity.

The ICRC adds that the existence of a internal armed conflict gives rise to the application of IHL, also known as the law of armed conflict, which imposes limitations on the way in which parties can conduct hostilities and protects all people affected by the conflict. IHL imposes equal obligations on both parties to the conflict, although it does not confer any legal status on armed opposition groups participating in hostilities.

Is there any precedent in Ecuador? According to the portal First fruitsthe last time Ecuador declared internal armed conflict It was in 1995, during the war Cenepa who faced the Peru. That time the measure did not reach the entire country.

What is going to happen in Ecuador?

The constitutionalist Rafael Oyarte explained to the EFE agency the differences between issuing a Exception status and declare internal armed conflict.

In it first case, is issued for criminal reasons or serious internal commotion. The Armed Forces intervene as an auxiliary force of the National Police.

While in the second casethe operations will no longer be police, but exclusively of a military nature, where the police only operate as an auxiliary force.

The lawyer said that in a internal armed conflict The purpose of the military forces is not to locate and capture the opposing elements but “neutralize them”, with “elimination as an extreme factor, but basically surrendering the enemy.”

Clarified that “massacres or rivers of blood” have not been authorized. He insisted that To neutralize means to use “lethal force to surrender the enemy.”.

While the constitutionalist Ismael Quintana told EFE that “recognizing these gangs no longer as criminal groups, but as groups belligerents generates an undeniable legal effect: The Armed Forces have full constitutional authorization to neutralize them with the collaboration of the Police.”

For his part, the professor Efren Guerreroa human rights specialist, told Primicias that the Constitutional court will review the decree and must establish the rules that will have to be taken into account when making decisions. At that moment its real scope and effects will only be known.

Are there the conditions to declare internal armed conflict in Ecuador?

Last year, the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio He was murdered in Quito in the middle of the electoral campaign. He had reported being the victim of death threats from the leader of The Choneros, alias Fito. But after the crime, a video circulated where the Wolves, the strongest criminal organization in the country, claimed responsibility. So far the case has not been resolved.

This week, the criminal groups that have rioted in the prisons have warned the president in videos Noboa that if the military enters the prisons it will cause a war in the country.

Those and other elements, such as having 22 criminal organizations identified as terroristsseveral of which control territory and manage ports to export drugs in complicity with foreign mafias, are enough to determine that there is a internal armed conflict?

Edward Pérez, a human rights expert at University College London Law School, told BBC World that “In Ecuador it is not clear if the conflict reaches the level of intensity or if it is long enough for it to be said that there is actually an internal armed conflict.”.

But the Ecuadorian lawyer María José Mogrovejo, a specialist in Constitutional Law, told BBC Mundo that the conditions to declare internal armed conflict in Ecuador do exist.

“We have the issues of prolongation and intensity because the situation we are currently experiencing has not just emerged with the current government and we have not seen just one riot in the country’s prisons, we have been in this for years… The situation current is uncontrollable. The government lost control of Ecuadorian territory and that is why it needs the intervention of the Armed Forces,” he said.