An Arizona tribe is instituting a temporary curfew in response to violent crime

News

An Arizona tribe is instituting a temporary curfew in response to violent crime

2025-02-26 09:31 Last Updated At：10:01

PHOENIX (AP) — A tribe in Arizona instituted a temporary curfew for members under 18 on Tuesday because of a recent increase in violent crime within the community.

Stephen Roe Lewis, governor of the Gila River Indian Community south of Phoenix, declared a public safety emergency and instituted the nearly two-week curfew, which will run from 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. every night until March 9.

“I will always take action whenever necessary to protect the Community’s youth, and I encourage all Community members to report any suspicious or criminal activity to the Gila River Police Department,” Lewis said in the statement posted on Instagram.

The announcement came the same day there was a shooting within the community, according to a Facebook post by the Gila River Police Department. In January, officers responded to at least four missing persons reports, 65 assaults and 17 drug-related cases, among other crimes, according to police.

The extent of the increase in violent crime was unclear, as was whether one specific incident resulted in the tribe's decision.

The police department and the tribe declined to comment.

Those who don't follow the curfew could face civil or criminal penalties, according to the announcement. That includes adults who cause a minor to violate the curfew.

Exceptions to the curfew may be made for emergencies, work, school or instances when a young person is accompanied by their parent or guardian, the tribe said.

Last year, the tribe temporarily banned dances after a tribal police officer was fatally shot and another wounded while responding to a reported disturbance at a home in one of the tribal community’s seven districts.

Ecuador's incumbent president and a leftist lawyer again vie for the top job in election runoff

2025-04-13 23:35 Last Updated At：23:42

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuadorians are voting Sunday in the country’s presidential election runoff, facing the choice between incumbent President Daniel Noboa and leftist lawyer Luisa González.

Noboa, a conservative young millionaire, and González have both promised voters solutions to the extortions, killings, kidnappings and other crimes that became part of everyday life as the country emerged from the pandemic. Analysts expect the result in Sunday’s vote to have a very tight margin.

It’s the second presidential runoff election in less than two years in the South American country, where voting is mandatory.

Voters chose Noboa over González in the runoff of a snap election in October 2023. The candidates advanced to Sunday’s contest after polling most votes in February’s first-round election. Noboa won 44.17% of the votes while González garnered 44%.

Voters are primarily worried about the violence that transformed the country, starting in 2021 — a spike in crime tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru.

Both candidates have promised tough-on-crime policies, better equipment for law enforcement and international help to fight drug cartels and local criminal groups.

“My vote is clear,” said Irene Valdez, a retiree who voted for Noboa. “I want to continue living in freedom.”

Martín Constante, a 19-year-old university student, had a different view. “I think Luisa is going to change things, because Noboa has been very authoritarian,” he said. “Our country needs a lot of changes.”

More than 13 million people are eligible to vote, which is mandatory for adults up to the age of 65. It is optional for people aged 16 and 17 and over 65. Failure to vote results in a $46 fine.

In 2023, Noboa and González were largely unknown to most voters as they sought the presidency for the first time. They were first-term lawmakers in May 2023, when then-President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the National Assembly, shortening his own mandate as a result and triggering that year’s snap election.

Noboa’s first foray into politics was his stint as lawmaker. An heir to a fortune built on the banana trade, Noboa opened an event-organizing company when he was 18 and then joined his father’s Noboa Corp., where he held management positions in the shipping, logistics and commercial areas.

González, 47, held various government jobs during the presidency of Rafael Correa, who led Ecuador from 2007 through 2017 with free-spending socially conservative policies and grew increasingly authoritarian in his last years as president.

Noboa, 37, declared Ecuador to be in a state of “internal armed conflict” in January 2024, allowing him to deploy thousands of soldiers to the streets to combat gangs and to charge people with terrorism counts for alleged ties to organized crime groups.

Under his watch, the homicide rate dropped from 46.18 per 100,000 people in 2023, to 38.76 per 100,000 people in 2024. But despite the decrease, the rate remained far higher than the 6.85 homicides per 100,000 people seen in 2019.

Some of Noboa’s heavy-handed crime-fighting tactics have come under scrutiny for testing the limits of laws and norms of governing. He has also been criticized for allegations of electoral anomalies he made after February’s vote.

Following the first-round election, Noboa said there had been “many irregularities” and that in certain provinces “there were things that didn’t add up.” He provided no further details or evidence. Electoral observers from the Organization of American States and the European Union ruled out fraud.

Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City.