The nation’s goals have been refocused from COVID-19 prevention to fighting crime as the president calls a state of emergency

The first few months of rule by Ecuador‘s newly-elected president have not been smooth sailing… with the leader battling both a Covid crisis and a recent spike in violent crime.

Upon taking office, the president’s priority was to turbocharge the nation’s vaccine rollout… but this has swiftly been replaced by a huge crime wave driven by drug trafficking gangs taking hold of the country.

The situation is so bad that the president has now declared a state of emergency and soldiers have been tasked with carrying out checks on the streets and bring order to the capital.

This all follows intense rioting in the country’s major high-security prison, which saw 119 inmates killed in a fight between rival gangs.

The deadly event has been viewed as a stark wake-up call of the growing influence and control trans-national crime gangs now have over Ecuador.

Meanwhile, the newly-elected president believes his government is regaining control… and says “the two previous governments were too passive when it came to fighting drug trafficking”.