2023-07-20 16:02:00
At the Provincia de Imbabura school, in the El Recreo citadel, in Durán, students report days with only four students in a room for 20.
The levels of violence have increased for a month, affecting all days, especially the night.
In the first year of high school at the school night, attendance fluctuates between 4 and 10 students since last week. When students leave at 10:00 p.m., they find no public transportation and walk up to 40 minutes home, amid fears of crime and constant shootings.
Marcos, a student from the Province of Imbabura, requested virtual classes on July 14 from the district director of Education. “The fear is being hit by a bullet, we ask for virtuality for three or four weeks until the situation stabilizes,” he said.
In fact, according to Education figures, up to 14,874 students have stopped attending classes in Durán, in a context of insecurity in the canton.
That is 70.42% of the 21,121 students in the city. While they were prioritized with external police protection, the entry and exit of students, as part of the Safe School plan.
There are 20 sheltered institutions of the 136 schools that a city of 315,000 inhabitants has.
The Ministry of Education decided this Wednesday, July 19, to maintain face-to-face classes in the canton, despite requests for virtuality from parents, due to the increase in violent deaths and constant shootings.
A pilot of the new School Police plan will begin in Durán In response to citizen protests, the National Police will begin a pilot of the School Police plan in Durán.
Seven educational units will have a permanent police officer inside, as a risk and security manager.
Face-to-face classes continue
At a press conference, the Minister of Education, María Brown, avoided referring to the figures on how insecurity has impacted class attendance. “We have seen that there is an increase in non-attendance to classes in person during the last week, which is different from school dropout. We attribute it to misinformation and we hope that begins to reverse,” Brown said.
In Durán, of 103 violent deaths of people related to organized crime, seven were minors. And among the minors, only one was in the educational system. The minister used that argument to maintain face-to-face classes.
The levels of risk increase when children and young people stop attending the educational center, which can lead to situations such as forced recruitment, he said.
In addition, so far Ecuador has not registered violent deaths inside schools, added the official.
The governor of Guayas, Francesco Tabacchi, said that there were objections to the requests for virtuality, because children and young people come from student deficiencies after the pandemic. “We have to take advantage of the face-to-face classes because it is most likely that there will also be an impact on the school period with the El Niño phenomenon,” said the official.
In the last month, shootings and violent deaths have been reported in the vicinity of schools in sectors such as Oramas González, El Recreo and Primavera 2. Parents have stopped sending students to class even during the morning session.
“When there are shootings, we have to run out to look for our children,” claimed a mother from the Rafael Larrea Public School, from the third stage of El Recreo. There the parents staged a sit-in on the morning of this Wednesday, July 19, demanding online classes for a few weeks, in order to protect the life and safety of the students.
The demonstrators shouted in chorus the request for “virtuality” carrying banners with slogans such as: “Durán is in mourning, we want solutions” and “We live in anxiety, we demand our rights.” Violent deaths The Durán canton has recorded 104 violent deaths so far this year, compared to the 75 reported in the same period last year.
The increase is 38.67%.
Colonel Jorge Hadatty, police chief of the Durán district, indicated that the canton had a downward trend in murders, 15 fewer compared to 2022 until mid-June.
“But for almost a month there has been a breakdown and friction between criminal structures, with which the struggle for power over territory begins to increase the number of murders,” said the official.
Hadatty maintained that most likely some kind of agreement or pact between the gangs was broken, an agreement broken after a betrayal and a murder, as announced by PRIMICIAS.
Rupture of agreement between gangs unleashed violence in Durán Latin Kings and Chone Killers dispute Durán for micro-trafficking, international drug trafficking and related crimes.
In fact, the seven schools that will have a permanent police officer are on the limits of the territories in dispute by these organizations, informed General Willian Villarroel, police commander of Zone 8 (Guayaquil, Durán and Samborondón).
Until June 26, Durán recorded an average of one or two violent deaths a week, he said. But since then they increased to 15 and 17 murders in the week, with days of up to four and five homicides a day.
massive operatives
The Police strategy is now focused on massive operations with 100 police officers and 50 transit agents from the Durán Transit Authority (ATD). On the night of July 18, the agents deployed to the fifth stage of El Recreo.
This is a sector where it was detected that commercial premises were being threatened with alleged alerts of armed attacks and massacres against the population, according to Colonel Hadatty. The Governor also participated in the operation.
During the deployment, two people and two vehicles with numerical alterations in the engine and chassis, which are presumed stolen, were arrested. One of the cars would have participated in a violent act registered in the canton last Thursday, July 13, according to the Police.
While the ATD stopped a dozen motorcycles that were circulating without license plates. The majority lacked a vehicle inspection since 2018 or 2019. “These types of motorcycles without license plates are being used in criminal acts. The objective is to prevent recording records from being left in the video surveillance cameras,” explained Colonel Noe Santana, ATD traffic control director.
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