Juana Vallejo: “We are going to create shelters to detoxify and reinsert the addicts”

Ecuadornews:

The governor, who has been in office for just over two months, receives newspaper EXPRESO in her office, after presenting the contingency plan for this holiday. Inside, she talks about the projects carried out and the long road that, she assures, she must travel together with the Police, the Municipality and the community to strengthen citizen security.

Although former governor José Francisco Cevallos said in his last report that crime had fallen by 17% in zone 8, Guayaquil residents say they feel insecure. What is your plan of action against it? How will you make the city safe?

The fundamental thing is to speak with the truth and live with the truth. Guayaquil needs a comprehensive effort with a long-term vision, and we are working on it. We are creating a security plan that is linked to development and social coexistence.

Have you started the work?

Yes. Through technical panels, we are analyzing the actions of the Police, Justice and the Prosecutor’s Office. The first step is to detect where the institutions are failing to adjust the nuts. There are complaints that are not well done or are not executed because of the citizen’s fear of reporting. The idea is to streamline the process and see which are the leaks that allow the offender to get those legal twists that leave him free.

And that has also led the citizen to distrust the system, a thought that worries. How can you get confidence back?

Having clear and enforcing the rights and duties of the citizen. Unfortunately that is not clear. And for that, I repeat, you have to work in an integral way with everyone, according to the rules and with discipline.

At this point Vallejo remembers what happened in Posorja, when under the thought that they do not trust the system and by a rumor, dozens of inhabitants beat to death three people who thought they were kidnappers. To say what she thinks, she quotes Juan Montalvo (writer): “‘A society that lives without rights is a society of slaves, the one that does not fulfill its duties is a society of corrupt people, but those who do not know their rights or fulfill their rights, duties are barbarians’, and we can never get to that, “she says.

For security reasons this year, 600 members of the Police joined the 7,400 who already perform their duties in the city. Has bringing more agents resulted?

Yes, they came very recently, after it was taken over, and the homicides, robbery to people and home have dropped considerably. With regard to the latter, for example, comparing the month of October 2017 and 2018, the cases went from 107 to 62. But it is not enough. To combat crime, we must build the social participation of citizens.

But how to achieve it?

We have toured the different neighborhoods, the hot, red zones identified by the Police, and we are working together with the neighborhood committees to install more cameras, early warnings, greater control. In addition, we are bringing two international experts, one from Medellin and the other from the United Nations who have killed the insecurity. We want them to teach us to build friendlier and less violent cities. The goal is for us to be organized neighbors. And is that nobody is free of a family member is a victim of crime. In the neighborhoods you cannot breathe the tranquility of before.

In the face of crime, Mayor Jaime Nebot proposed the draft Law on Strengthening Citizen Security that aims to strengthen penalties for crimes. Do you approve the initiative? Would it help society?

I would. And in fact they think so the representatives of the 24 cantons of the province, who have come to request the same. To speed up the process, I am willing to discuss the issue in the Assembly itself. And when I do, I will also request that the consumption table be modified, since it is the drugs that triggered the crime figures. That law was a pandering, we are talking to lawyers to see how a reform is made.

And while that happens, how to stop the consumption?

There is a program called ‘Your school in good hands’, which the former governor did and we have taken a turn to improve it. There we will work with the family, the teacher, the street vendor. We will see that within a radius of 300 meters of each unit is not generating any type of crime. In addition, together with private companies and municipalities, we are looking for land, buildings, which can be restored and serve as shelters for those who consume and live in the streets.

Has any progress been made?

We are signing an agreement with the Ministry of Production to recover a building, which would be the first in Guayaquil. In it, the young person would be detoxified, rehabilitated and reinserted into society. For this we have spoken with the Chamber of Industries and Construction to then give them work.

However, to obtain results you have to destroy those who dedicate themselves to the infamous micro-trafficking business that has destroyed society so much.

Although three decades have passed, Vallejo says that in his previous administration she experienced the same thing. “Although there was not so much drug, yes we lived alert. Today we are opting for a resounding change, “she says, when calling on society to trust the police, the authorities and the Armed Forces, which, she assures, only this week seized 300 weapons from an illegal armory in Guayaquil.

Securityin The holiday

As announced by the authorities on October 30, to safeguard the safety of residents and tourists on this holiday, 1,891 police officers and 1,772 officers of the Transit Commission will travel through the province and its roads.

In Guayaquil, 875 members of the Municipal Transit Authority will control the area. In terms of health, there will be 1,500 medical servers that will serve 10 hospitals and 10 health centers; and the ECU-911, for its part, through 692 surveillance cameras will report any irregularity. (I)

Source: https://www.expreso.ec/guayaquil/entrevista-juanavallejo-gobernadora-guayas-adicciones-EH2449666