Corruption in the Security Forces. An Isolated Fact or a Generalization? A Brief Study of the Ecuadorian Case

Abstract

With the appearance of new dissident groups of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC- EP), the perception of insecurity has increased in Ecuador, especially on the northern border. These criminal organizations have tried for a long time to insert themselves into institutions responsible for security to facilitate their criminal activities, mainly associated with transport, collection, custody, and sale of narcotics and illegal substances, kidnapping, illegal mining, among others. This article carries out a generic analysis of the level of corruption and the evil effects generated in the Latin American region and why the irregular armed groups have tried to infiltrate the State security forces and led the Ecuadorian case as a study model. This paper also verifies the situation of participation of the uniformed in acts of common or organized crime, and its analysis on whether cases of non-compliance with the law can be considered as isolated or as the beginning of a process of contamination and low professionalization of these security institutions. The study carried out shows that participated in acts of corruption, or common crime, representing 0.02% of the Ecuadorian Security Institutions’ total personnel.