Many presidential candidates in Ecuador have pledged to use their military forces to halt the spread of drugs in their ports. These drug exports have mostly been cocaine which has been smuggled through mainly bananas with Ecuador being the world’s biggest banana exporter moving 6,500 containers of bananas each week. Cocaine has also been found with tuna, hollowed-out pineapples, and stashed with sugar. The main two candidates in the upcoming election are the leftist Luisa Gonzales and a business heir Daniel Noboa. They have both agreed that this problem needs to be solved and have promised to use military forces at their ports and airports. According to the voters of Ecuador, they also agree that security is a major concern.
It is very good that these upcoming candidates recognize this problem and want to solve it. This is very important because it will slow down the spread of drugs exported out of Ecuador. However, it could lead to slower exportation of Ecuadorian goods making their economy weaker. The reason these drugs are being shipped out is because of drug cartels but mostly Colombian ones. They have been taking over many banana producers in Ecuador and forcing them to export the drug through threats and violence. If these candidates fulfill their promise to militarize their ports it will lead to the cartels finding new ways to export their drugs in different parts of the region which will cause problems for other countries in the region.
This relates to what we have learned in our international relations class because the nation of Ecuador is going to change its policies to have more security in its ports. This of course is because of the drug cartel which is a rebel group that is moving their illegal product through the ports. If Ecuador succeeds with this plan, it will be doing the government’s main job which is to protect the security of the people and to fulfill their needs with one of the voters’ top concerns being the security of the nation.