Ecuador: New President Daniel Noboa Takes Tougher Stance on Drugs; Repeals Controversial Law

Less than 48 hours after being sworn in, Ecuador's new president, Daniel Noboa, has started addressing his country's rising drug problem with the repeal of some very controversial guidelines that eliminated penalties for people found carrying illegal narcotics under a certain amount.

According to Voice of America News, Noboa, the heir to one of Ecuador's richest billionaires, ran on an anti-illegal drugs platform as he vowed to fight drug trafficking and add more consequences to the illegal trade, particularly cocaine. This repeal is largely seen as a step towards fulfilling that campaign promise.

Noboa's office released a statement regarding the repeal of the controversial law, stating that those guidelines "encouraged micro-trafficking" and added that they were a "harmful element for Ecuadorian society."

With the repeal, Ecuador's new president has ordered the ministries of interior and public health to develop "coordinated information, prevention and control programs on the consumption of narcotic and psychotropic substances." In addition, he also wants the two ministries to offer treatment and rehabilitation to "habitual and problematic occasional users."

These controversial guidelines were introduced during the presidency of Rafael Correa back in 2013. Correa is now an ally of Noboa but during his time, the government argued that "illegal drug use was a public health problem and users should not be sent to prison." This was an attempt to differentiate drug consumption from drug trafficking, though many in Ecuador feel that the policy did not work at all as the country's illegal drug problem only became worse as time went by.

Under these controversial guidelines, individuals could carry up to 10 grams of marijuana, 2 grams of cocaine paste, 1 gram of cocaine, 0.10 grams of heroin, and 0.04 grams of amphetamine. These guidelines drew criticisms from many, particularly Ecuador's conservative right.

How Daniel Noboa's Repeal Will Be Implemented Remains Unclear

Despite the decision to repeal the controversial law, implementing it may be more complicated than many think as many have tried repealing it before, including Noboa's predecessor, former President Guillermo Lasso.

He announced back in 2021 that he would eliminate these guidelines but that promise never came to fruition. Like the new president, Lasso argued that allowing small amounts of narcotics to be carried affected "young people and children."

This is made even more complicated by Ecuador's Constitutional Court, which ordered judges to distinguish between consumers and traffickers when determining possible punishments. Should these guidelines be lifted, it would become unclear how judges will make their distinctions, according to the Associated Press.

New Ecuador President Daniel Noboa Making Security His Top Priority

The recent Ecuadorian elections were marred by violence, including the death of one presidential candidate, Fernando Villavicencio, who vowed to go after the illegal drug trade. Since that incident, many of the other candidates have vowed to make security their priority, including Daniel Noboa.

Now that he has won the presidency, he continued vowing to focus more on fighting crime, saying in his inaugural speech that his security policy will tie into his economic policy to prevent people from joining the country's emerging criminal organizations, which have slowly been gaining power.

"To fight violence we must fight unemployment. The country needs jobs and to create them I will send urgent reforms to the assembly, which should be treated with responsibility and by putting the country first," he vowed.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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