HomeNewsBriefChina Loans Ecuador $240 Mn for Security Program
BRIEF

China Loans Ecuador $240 Mn for Security Program

CHINA AND CRIME / 22 OCT 2012 BY EDWARD FOX EN

Ecuador announced that it will receive a loan of $240 million from China for its new citizen security program, pointing to the Asian giant's role in Latin American security.

As part of its drive to increase citizen security, Ecuador is in the process of constructing 16 points throughout the country that will serve as response centers for the emergency services. The project, named ECU 911, will be set up using a $240 million investment loan from China, EFE reported.

Two of the centers are already in operation -- one in the southern city of Guayaquil, another in Cuenca -- with the rest expected to be running by the end of 2013.

Under ECU 911, 3,000 surveillance cameras will also be installed in various parts of the country, and there will be new electronic surveillance systems on the border to alert Ecuadorean authorities if anyone crossing has an international arrest warrant against them, said Security Minister Homero Arellano.

InSight Crime Analysis

As Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Richard Weitz notes, China’s military and security involvement in Latin America has been reserved to avoid alarming the United States, which remains the biggest regional funder for security.

Also, unlike the United States, China has no notable domestic drug market that is being fed by Latin American gangs.

However, there is evidence of China's growing interest in Latin American security. Ecuador approved the purchase of Chinese radar antennae for its border with Colombia in 2009, while Bolivia bought six Chinese aircraft last year to use in its anti-narcotics efforts. Venezuela has purchased both radars and military aircraft from China in recent years and a number of Latin American countries, including Brazil and Colombia, have sent officials to military schools in the Asian country.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COCAINE / 7 JUL 2022

Ahmet Yilmaz* shouldn’t be in a dangerous profession. He’s not a cop or a criminal. Ahmet is a banana importer…

COLOMBIA / 28 SEP 2021

The recent dismantling of a migrant smuggling ring in Colombia has revealed the routes, corruption networks and modus operandi used…

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 4 OCT 2021

Military intelligence has revealed a flow of arms from Chile and Peru into Ecuador along its southern border, highlighting the…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…