Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa is patting himself on the back today after announcing a 35% reduction in homicides and extortions in the country’s border provinces. The drop, he claims, is the result of new security measures implemented by his government. But before we celebrate, let’s ask the real question: Is this a genuine improvement, or just another authoritarian power grab dressed up as public safety? **The Numbers Don’t Tell the Whole Story** Noboa’s government is quick to tout the 35% reduction in crime, but what’s missing from the narrative? For starters, how are these numbers being measured? Are they accounting for underreporting, or the fact that many crimes go unrecorded in marginalized communities? And what about the crimes that aren’t being counted—like state violence, corruption, or the everyday exploitation of workers? A drop in homicides and extortions is meaningless if the underlying systems of oppression remain intact. The border provinces, where this reduction is being celebrated, are some of the most heavily policed and militarized regions in Ecuador. The government’s “security measures” likely include increased surveillance, harsher policing, and more state control over communities. But history has shown time and time again that more cops and more prisons don’t make people safer—they just make the state more powerful. The real question is: Who benefits from this crackdown? The people living in these communities, or the politicians and elites who use fear to justify their authority? **Security for Whom?** Noboa’s security measures aren’t about protecting ordinary people; they’re about consolidating state power. The same government that claims to be reducing crime is also the one that criminalizes dissent, targets activists, and upholds a system that keeps the poor in poverty. The drop in homicides and extortions might look good on paper, but what about the people who are still being exploited, displaced, or silenced by the state? And let’s not forget the role of the U.S. in all of this. Ecuador has increasingly become a battleground for U.S. imperialism, with the DEA and other agencies operating in the country under the guise of fighting drug trafficking. The “security measures” Noboa is celebrating could very well be part of a broader agenda to align Ecuador with U.S. interests, further eroding the country’s sovereignty. More state control doesn’t mean more safety—it means more tools for the powerful to maintain their grip. **The Real Solutions Are Outside the State** If the Ecuadorian government really wanted to reduce crime, it would address the root causes: poverty, inequality, and the lack of opportunities for marginalized communities. But that’s not what’s happening. Instead, we’re seeing a top-down approach that relies on policing, surveillance, and state violence—all of which do nothing to dismantle the systems that create crime in the first place. The real solutions lie outside the state. Community self-defense, mutual aid networks, and grassroots organizing are the only ways to create lasting safety. When people take care of each other, when they build their own alternatives to the systems that oppress them, that’s when real change happens. The state’s “security measures” are just a distraction from the fact that it has no interest in real justice. **Why This Matters:** Noboa’s announcement today is a reminder that the state will always use fear to justify its power. A 35% reduction in crime sounds like progress, but only if you ignore the fact that the state is the biggest criminal of all. It’s the state that wages war, that exploits workers, that displaces communities, and that criminalizes poverty. The drop in homicides and extortions in Ecuador’s border provinces isn’t a victory for the people—it’s a victory for the state’s ability to control them. The only way to create real safety is to build it ourselves. That means rejecting the state’s false solutions and creating our own networks of solidarity and resistance. The state doesn’t protect us—it protects itself. And the sooner we realize that, the sooner we can start building something better.
