The President of the Republic, Daniel Noboa, chaired the Security Council in the Daule canton (Guayas), in which it was decided to continue with the plan to build intermediate barracks to replace the UPC.
President Daniel Noboa, upon his arrival at the Daule canton, where the Security Council met, on December 28, 2023.
The President of the Republic, Daniel Noboa, arrived in Daule, in Guayas, to lead the meeting of the Security Council together with the Minister of Defense, Gian Carlo Loffredo, and other military authorities.
The objective is to promote gun control on the roads by the Armed Forces, as well as continue with the construction plan for intermediate barracks that will replace the community police units (UPC).
At the end of the meeting, Minister Loffredo assured that it is necessary to protect police officers from attacks by organized crime.
“Currently, crime does not provide for this type of community police units, but rather for intermediate headquarters, which provide more deterrence and protection to police officers,” said Loffredo.
A promise that was born in 2022
In October 2022, the then Minister of the Interior, Juan Zapata, announced that they would implement a new management model for police units in the most dangerous neighborhoods.
It referred to spaces with more security, with armored structures and all the necessary logistical and technological equipment.
“I had a meeting with the Police and the planning people of the Ministry so that in the conflictive areas the points where they are needed can be built, no longer UPC, but an intermediate barracks, with between 300 and 400 men,” Zapata said last year.
At the beginning of 2023, Guillermo Lasso’s government promised to build 20 of these spaces in five provinces, at a cost of USD 150.8 million, but this plan did not materialize.
