Administrator Samantha Power at the Launch of a New Citizen Security Initiative in Ecuador

ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: Thank you so much for welcoming me today and for the opportunity to speak to you, at this incredibly beautiful cultural hub, about the ways that the United States and USAID are supporting citizens security here in Ecuador. I have just had a very productive conversation with Mayor [Pabel] Muñoz and Secretary [Carolina] Andrade, and other colleagues, Ecuadorian colleagues, about the impact of crime on Quito and the steps needed to keep citizens safe. 

Here in Quito and across Ecuador in recent months we have witnessed violence destroying so many young lives. Citizens denied the everyday security and tranquility that they once felt in their neighborhoods – in this island of peace. And of course, the brazen assassinations of leaders like Manta Mayor Agustin Intriago and presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who were murdered as they stood up against corruption and crime. And our hearts really and truly go out to all those who love these individuals who were seeking simply to serve their country, and to try to build a brighter future for the people of Ecuador. 

The Mayor and I discussed the continued importance of citizen security initiatives here in Quito and across Ecuador. We agreed that these initiatives should not and cannot focus solely on reacting to crime. These initiatives must address root causes, even though we know that those root causes are incredibly complex. Building secure communities can't be accomplished by a single operation or a single government agency. It requires a coordinated effort between local and national governmental institutions in which citizens are engaged, as well. 

That is why USAID started what is called the PILARES program – our citizen security initiative here in Ecuador – which I just formally announced on the New Municipal FM 102.9. We are investing more than $17 million to bring together government officials, civil society organizations, and community leaders who are working to reduce crime throughout Ecuador. Already, PILARES has helped nine municipalities in Guayas and the city of Quito, and is expanding into Esmeraldas and Pastaza regions in 2024, to work with their citizens to develop and implement comprehensive strategies to reduce crime. That means not just better policing, but building more secure communities through installing community alarms, better lighting, activating neighborhood councils, and improving ways for citizens to access information on security and on self protection that can help keep them safe. 

Today, USAID is finding creative ways to facilitate even more of these partnerships. And here, I’m talking, of course, about the radio. You know, better than I do, the power of radio to help citizens better voice their needs to their leaders. Some of you, of course, remember how – when the earthquakes in 2016 cut off phone lines and internet access – radio became one of the few ways citizens could call on their government to coordinate emergency response, to find out information about missing loved ones, and to access information about where to seek food and shelter. 

So I was delighted to join Emilio Dominguez Recalde, the 16 year-old founder of InformaEC, a company that works to promote diversity of opinion in journalism, along with Secretary of Security Carolina Andrade to announce one of USAID’s newest initiatives. For the next four months, USAID will fund a radio program on the New Municipal FM 102.9 that will work to better engage and enlist young people – one of the communities most impacted by gang violence and crime. Young activities, community leaders, and ordinary citizens can speak to their leaders on the radio, raise their concerns, and be involved, personally involved, in efforts to reduce crime in their communities. 

PILARES will supplement and coordinate closely with the U.S. Department of State, in pursuit of a safer future for all Ecuadorian people. That work, of course, includes, as well, strengthening relations between Ecuador’s National Police and community leaders here in Quito and throughout coastal neighborhoods – and helping them better collaborate to address root causes of crime, like reducing community demand for drugs. It includes supporting local and national officials as they work to strengthen Ecuador’s border and maritime security. And it includes investigating and prosecuting the sophisticated criminal networks that perpetrate crime and violence, and threaten Ecuador’s democratic institutions. This includes setting up the country’s first-ever Specialized Court for Organized Crime and Corruption, for example. 

I'm grateful to Mayor Munoz and municipal leaders of Quito for their partnership with USAID and I look forward to discussing our joint work to promote citizen security with President Lasso and President-elect Noboa later this week. The challenges are formidable. Any Ecuadorian one speaks to, one hears from the heart, just how concerned citizens have become about the rise in violence and crime. But the United States and USAID are truly committed to work alongside leaders and citizens in Quito and across the country to help Ecuadorians secure their fundamental right. The right to safety. 

I look forward to your questions. Thank you so much.

ECUAVISA (via translation): Thank you good afternoon welcome to Ecuador. The question that I have is regarding how to advance so that the reaction of the stakeholders will not only be from the police department or the army but to service people that due to a lack of state presence social programs become part of this criminal organizations and generate violence. To what part or what is the experience that Ecuador can learn from other countries?

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you very much for that question. And really that observation, which is there is no way for any community or any country to tackle security in a vacuum. One must look holistically at what is causing, for example, demand for drugs. Your point, what is causing young people or people at any age, to allow themselves to be recruited to be part of gangs or criminal networks? What lack of opportunity – economic opportunity – would drive someone to be part of a criminal network that those individuals would know would harm their neighbors and country people. So there is often a degree of desperation involved. One has to think about education and educational opportunities, as well. And there is no question that systemic corruption has long abetted crime, not only in this country in many, many countries. 

So, again, no one ministry, no one development agency, no one community can possibly tackle all of this by itself or at once. But I think what is very useful about PILARES, this initiative that we are announcing today, is that it allows citizens to be part of that conversation about what a comprehensive solution has to look like. You know, leaders who appear on this radio program, will hear from constituents what the greatest needs are and why it seems as though more and more young people are getting pulled by these networks into this dark and destructive line of work. So there are no panaceas, no quick solutions. But I think the rise in crime and violence after so many years of relative harmony and peace in a part of the world where others were wracked with violence and drug-related crimes – this has caught a lot of people off guard. And I think now, it is very clear that there is a huge demand from the citizens of this country. Certainly in the wake of recent elections, a lot of expressions in those elections about the importance of this mandate, and the importance of thinking holistically about tackling this really devastating and tragic phenomenon. 

There are really hopeful examples, not too far from here – Medellin in Colombia, once synonymous with crime and murder, and kidnapping – all around the world, citizens, business leaders, municipal authorities, and the national authorities came together and were willing to make substantial investments across the range of sectors in order to tackle drug crime. And so we, at USAID, who have worked in Colombia for decades, look forward as well to supporting municipal and national efforts to learn from examples like that, given the dramatic progress that a city like Medellin has, has made by virtue of that whole of society, whole of government approach.

RADIO LA CALLE (via translation): Regarding your meeting with Mayor Pablo Muñoz, what actions will USAID carry on together with the municipality? And how long will this last for beyond the key sectors regarding security?

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you. Well, PILARES is a $17.7 million initiative over three years to start. That's our initial investment. And Quito is one of the first towns that we have begun to work with local officials to figure out what are the appropriate programs to tackle crime and violence. The initiative will distribute rapid small grants to everything from community leaders, to youth organizations, to individuals who can provide technical assistance, for example, drawing on some of those lessons from other parts of the world – technical assistance to those who are devising municipal community security plans.

We are, we share, at the outset some of the questions about why is this happening, what are the very specific reasons in this particular neighborhood that this uptick in murder or in violence has occurred. So, we want to bring data and, you know, foundational analysis to bear so that when there are scarce resources, those resources are selectively deployed in accordance with the findings about what actually is behind what is happening. 

And I think critically, we will be listening to community leaders, to civil society, about where they think the small grants should go, you know, whether it is after school programs for young people so that they are not on the streets and easily recruited by these criminal networks, or whether it is some partnership between municipal and national authorities to, you know, address infrastructure issues that make it more dangerous for people to walk the streets. Again, these specifics will be worked out on a case by case basis, but what we want citizens to know, and what the mayor and his team, I hope will soon be broadcasting, is that resources are available if people have ideas for how to address some of the many causes or effects of increased insecurity. 

Our goal, collectively, is for citizens to feel more secure in their homes, more secure on the streets, and more secure in their communities.

PRIMICIAS (via translation): What is the diagnosis that USAID has carried out in the region regarding insecurity, because we have the sensation that in Ecuador, there has been an unmeasured increase of violence, but we see a Peru, Chile, Colombia, and they are in similar conditions. So that is the situation of Ecuador, is it worse than that of these other countries? And what recommendations would you make to the new administration, incoming administration here?

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you. Well, I think that you have asked him an absolutely critical question. Undoubtedly, some of the progress made for example, in Colombia to crack down on armed groups and on drug traffickers means that people who were committing crimes in one country or one community, want to go and commit crimes and make money somewhere else. And so, undoubtedly, there is some regional migration of these criminal networks. And while I'm no expert on how things have unfolded or deteriorated in terms of security here in Ecuador, I gather from those who have examined this, that that is likely a factor. 

But we can't forget, as well, that we're also coming out of a devastating pandemic. You know, it luckily, for those who didn't lose close loved ones, it feels like a long time ago, but it was really very, very recent, that schools shut down, economies shut down. People barely had enough to make ends meet, what employment they did enjoy suddenly vanished, tourism, such an absolutely critical part of the economy here, dried up. So, you know, there's no question that criminal elements take advantage of economic vulnerability. As you say that vulnerability was broad based, not just in Ecuador. So one still wants to understand specifically why here, why now. But certainly the shutdown in tourist revenue and tourist livelihoods would have created a distinct vulnerability in some of those communities. 

The other thing, you know that that is very important, and one of the areas that USAID has worked in for a long time, is on the rule of law, and judicial integrity, and having checks and balances, including through journalists, like those of you gathered here. But, you know, it is extremely important that not only that elections be free and fair, that citizens get to raise their voices when they are concerned about any issue of public policy, but also that the officials that they elect be accountable to the people, and that there be mechanisms, and checks and balances in place to crack down on corruption. So that is something that USAID has made investments in as well, because it is, from what we know from elsewhere in the world, it is going to be extremely challenging to tackle violent crime, narco traffickers and others without tackling institutionalized corruption.

If officials are more interested in making money then in protecting their citizens – which is certainly not the case for all officials – but wherever those officials are complicit with drug trafficking, that's going to make it really, really hard to root out. And so this is where some of the steps that have happened at the municipal level, at the national level, to build out those anti-corruption institutions. Like the anti-corruption court that I mentioned, which I think has its first convictions have gone through it, to be able to, for the state to invest in the security of those judges, and prosecutors, and lawyers, and public officials who are clean, and who are dedicated to using the public trust on behalf of citizens. 

Those investments also are going to be extremely important as again, a systemic anti-corruption drive accompanies efforts to enhance the police presence, citizen voice, and other lines of effort that are going to be needed. But again, I think even my response to these questions just speaks to the complexity. And the need not to look at any specific sector in isolation. But to think, broadly, it also speaks, again to the mandate that the Ecuadorian people have given their leaders to deal with this challenge because not only is violent crime, just a heartbreaking source of vulnerability and fear for the citizens of this country, but it is also now, finally having come out of COVID, a significant drain on the economy. So the economic growth, the inclusive economic growth, that the people of this country deserve and are totally capable of galvanizing will be more limited if, again, this effort to crack down on corruption and violent crime is not a top priority. 

Thank you so much.

PLAN V (via translation): Good afternoon, this year has been one of the most violent years against the Ecuadorian press, nine journalists have fled the country due to severe threats against their lives. You were a war correspondent, you know firsthand how important it is to have freedom of speech for a healthy democracy. What message can you give to Ecuadorian journalists mainly from the areas where organized crime is taking over everything and I mean, the local power they are taking over the local power? And what is the calling that you can raise to local authorities and the new administration of Ecuador, for protecting journalists so that the work is guaranteed in this country?

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you for that question. My message to journalists in this country, including those of you gathered here today is, thank you. Thank you for your determination to find the facts to uncover the truth, to hold public officials accountable. You are performing an incredible public service for your country men and women. And you have our deep gratitude and admiration in doing the work that you do. I absolutely take note of the increased threat to journalists who are doing this truth telling. And it is the responsibility of public officials who are also, of course, public servants first, to make sure that there is accountability for not only violent crimes against journalists, but other even more common forms of intimidation and harassment. When there is known to be a cost and a price to be paid for intimidating and attacking and killing journalists, it is only then when that cost is deemed high that journalists will be able to operate with the security that is that not only that they deserve, but that is of course in the public so much the public interest. 

So the last thing I would say is just that the United States, all of our government at the highest levels, will always stand up for independent journalism and raise our voices to press for protection and for accountability when journalists are subjected to intimidation and violence. But again, my main message is thank you. You are inspiring citizens all around the world with your courage and your determination to find the truth. 

Thank you.