It’s a traffic jam. Dozens of cars wait outside a specialized garage in Quito to be transformed into armored vehicles with opaque windows. In Ecuador, the violence that explodes creates psychosis and proves to be a boon for the security industry.
The workers dismantle the top-of-the-range 4X4s, reinforce windows and doors with materials supposed to resist bullets, but also the slightest interstice through which the barrel of a weapon or a projectile could penetrate.
The demand for security is growing in this country of 18.3 million inhabitants: politicians of all stripes, businessmen fearing being kidnapped to be extorted, journalists, but also simple traders…
Given “the level of insecurity we are currently experiencing (…) people are looking for alternatives” to protect themselves, explains to AFP Nicolas Reyes, one of the manufacturers of these armored vehicles.
A little over a year ago, he opened his factory in the capital. Quito is no longer spared the terror of drug trafficking reigning in the large port of Guayaquil (southwest) on the Pacific coast.
“We are not safe anywhere, it is a constant now in the country (…) It is up to us to protect ourselves by our own means”, notes Cristian Bravo, a 46-year-old trader.
“Last year in Quito, the sale of armored cars doubled or tripled,” said another player in the sector, Fernando Sanchez.
And this boom in the security industry is probably just beginning, after the resounding political assassination on August 9 of one of Sunday’s presidential favorites, Fernando Villavicencio. A Colombian hitman shot the candidate who had just gotten into his unarmored car. The murder shocked the country, which now lives in fear.
In the aftermath of the assassination, calls from customers asking for quotes poured in, says Mr. Sanchez. “Without a doubt (…) the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Mr. Reyes.
Gone are the days when Ecuador, an exception in Latin America, was a small haven of peace, wedged between Colombia and Peru, the largest cocaine producers in the world.
The plague of drug trafficking has contaminated the entire Pacific coast, whose ports are now essential for the export of white powder, while corruption in state bodies is on the rise, experts are alarmed.
For Carla Alvarez, security expert and academic, the security business is a “natural response to the perception” of the lack of protection among Ecuadorians.
The Gallup polling institute revealed in early 2023 that Ecuador was the country in Latin America where the feeling of insecurity was the strongest. And it’s not just a feeling, with a homicide rate (26 per 100,000 inhabitants) that has exceeded that of Mexico (25), Colombia (24) and Brazil (23), according to official figures. . Analysts estimate that by the end of the year, this rate will reach 40.
The presidential candidates all come out with their bulletproof vests. Journalists covering the election campaign do the same. One of the candidates, Daniel Noboa, took part in the televised debate between the applicants on Sunday wearing such a vest.
Villavicencio’s party and other political formations accuse the current government of Guillermo Lasso of being responsible for the crisis, having delegated security to private entities, such as security companies.
There are around 120,000 security agents in Ecuador, double the number of police officers, even Interior Minister Juan Zapata admits.
According to expert Alvarez, Ecuador’s security industry is following in the footsteps of other countries dealing with cartel or gang violence where “residents of upscale neighborhoods feel very vulnerable”.
But having your car armored costs at least 20,000 dollars (18,400 euros), in a country where the minimum wage is 450 dollars (410 euros).
While the purchase and sale of weapons remains strictly regulated, small entrepreneurs and traders who do not have the means resort to classic bullet-proof vests and heavy helmets, from 280 dollars (260 euros), according to Christopher Eggeling, another player in the sector.
“We have everything as customers: doctors, teachers, traders, road hauliers, or even shrimp producers” (of which Ecuador is the world’s leading exporter), who have become the preferred target of criminals.
According to Mr Eggeling, bulletproof vests have “become a mass product”.
08/17/2023 19:59:23 – Quito (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
