One Man’s Look at Safety and Security in Ecuador “no one cares about you here”

It Doesn’t Always Glitter. You’re on Your Own in Quito (opinion)
aplanelife.blogspot.com / I’ve mainly written about both Quito and South America from a positive perspective (save for my experience with the Ecuadorian National Police on the way out of Ecuador last year) and by-and-large it has been a very positive experience. Nevertheless, you need to always keep your head on a swivel because no one cares about you here. Let me repeat that for the backpackers out there who think they are in their own European/Australian/American cities. NO ONE ELSE CARES ABOUT YOU. Ecuadorians (and Colombians and Venezuelans and Peruvians and Chileans) all know this already.

SAFETY, SECURITY, HEALTH IN ECUADOR – THIS IS ONE BOOK THAT IS A MUST READ

A few days ago, some of our German volunteers were rehashing their previous night. They had gone to a discotech (again, calling it a nightclub has a very different significance here) called The Attic for Ladies Night. Ladies Night entails free drinks for about 2 hours for all females. At some point in the night, they encountered a young Argentinian woman passed out drunk in the corner with a group of local men eying her suspiciously. The Germans first went to the discos security and told them they needed an ambulance. Attics security responded by saying, “We can’t have an ambulance in front of our club. Bad for business.” Next, they put her in a cab and took her to the hospital. The hospital asked them to fill out paperwork before they’d care for her. Since the Germans didn’t know her, they couldn’t fill out her information. The hospital said they wouldn’t do anything for her, she was just drunk and fine. “If you leave her here, we’ll put her on the curb outside”. Next, the police were called. One guess whose side they took. If you really want to know what Ecuadorian hospitals and authorities think of foreigners, google “Charlotte Mazoyer”. She is a French woman who died in a Quito hospital after being shot in a robbery because she didn’t have money to pay up front for the hospitals services.

So let’s sum this up. I’m not going to speculate on where this Argentinian girl’s friends may have been since I often travel solo. However, see if you can find a pattern. The discotech didn’t care. The hospital didn’t care. The police didn’t care. Guess what…no one cares. Further, caring can be dangerous. I have an Ecuadorian acquaintance who cared. He found a girl whom he knew passed out on a bench in a dangerous section of Quito. He took her to his house until she was ok to leave. Her host mother went to the police because she MUST HAVE been raped. My acquaintance spent 3 months in an Ecuadorian prison until the matter was sorted and he was released.

I watched a man try and snatch a woman’s purse in broad daylight. In a store. DIRECTLY in front of the stores security guard. He’s paid to watch his employers items, not protect it’s customers. Guess what. He didn’t care. Read Full Blog Post