CPCCS President says that arming the civilian population is not the answer to violence

Gina Aguilar, president of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control ( Cpccs ), expressed this April 4, 2023 her position regarding the decree that authorizes the possession and carrying of weapons to civilians. She considers that the measure is a carte blanche for the violence to escalate. She urged President Guillermo Lasso to implement a comprehensive security policy.

Aguilar issued his pronouncement minutes before the start of the extraordinary session 12 of the Plenary.

He expressed that ” arming the civilian population has never been a response to violence. The State cannot and should not delegate the protection of life and physical integrity to the citizenry because that is not our role.”

For the official, it is not responsible for trying to reduce the issue of insecurity to a ” war between citizens and crime ” because insecurity has fundamental factors that must be analyzed and that among them is the abandonment of the State, the lack responses to basic needs, the lack of control of criminal gangs in prisons, the absence of rehabilitation, among others.

He maintained that international studies on security indicate that the problems are not solved by allowing the carrying of weapons. “On the contrary, it is a carte blanche for violence to escalate throughout society.”

The Alianza por los Derechos Humanos de Ecuador also spoke along this line, referring to a report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 2016. In that document, it is mentioned among the conclusions that there are direct links between access to firearms by civilians and violence against women and domestic violence in general.

Both Aguilar and the Alliance cited a mapping of femicides in Ecuador, by the Feminist Alliance, which indicates that 32% of femicides have been with firearms.

“This measure can deepen the problems of racism, discrimination and would cause greater terror in the population,” questioned the president of the CPCCS.

“We do not want to live in an armed society, afraid and abandoned by the State. That is not the country in which Ecuadorians want to live, nor the one we want to leave to our sons and daughters,” he added.

Appointment of head of the Comptroller

After the session began, the councilors analyzed the queries sent by the Citizen Selection Commission, in charge of carrying out the contest for the appointment of the authority of the Comptroller’s Office.

One of the questions was about what score should be given to the professional titles of the applicants in the merits stage.

For this, the Cpccs consulted the Secretary of Higher Education. This institution sent a technical response, which will be forwarded to the Commission, in order for it to advance in its job of qualifying the merits of the candidates.

However, the councilor Carlos Figueroa, from the minority, questioned that. He said that is not the answer the Commission is looking for.