Surveillance Cameras in Vilcabamba
Overview of the Chinese-built national surveillance system in Ecuador, its capabilities and ongoing expansion. Similar programs are in progress globally and the article is relevant to all countries.
To paraphrase Ben Franklin: Those who give up their freedom for short term security, deserve neither freedom nor security and will lose both.
NEW CAMERAS INSTALLED
In May of 2023, Presidente de la Junta Parroquial (mayor) of Vilcabamba, Victor Carpio coordinated the installation of 2 new surveillance cameras with the help of local community members and Colonel Estuardo Gaona from the Consejo de Seguridad Ciudadana del Municipio de Loja. One camera is near the Mercado along the main road through town and the other is in the Central Park by the church. There are now 3 cameras that I know of in town used by the government to monitor citizens. The third camera was installed a few years ago, on the corner, across from the municipal offices, in the Central Park plaza.
Victor Carpio put up this Facebook post(1) thanking those involved in the camera installation. Videos and images in the post show footage of the cameras working, construction photos and various comments offering praise for the “good work”.
In a discussion several months ago, following the camera installation, Victor Carpio was proud of the 2 cameras he had installed. He then said that he is moving quickly to put other cameras in the following locations:
- near the High School
- in front of the Coliseum/Stadium
- along the main road entrance coming in from Loja
During this interview, Victor said that the video feed will not be going to Loja or Quito. He said that this will be a local operation only.
I spoke with several police officers at the UPC police station. They all told me that they don’t have direct access to the video feed. They all said that the feed goes to Loja. The local police were not involved in installing the cameras.
SMART CITY OF LOJA
SMART City infrastructure is a prerequisite for an open air technocratic prison. (SMART stands for: Surveillance Monitoring Analysis Reporting Technology.)
Loja is planned to be the first SMART City in Ecuador.(2) Newspaper headlines announce:
Por qué Loja será la primera 'smart city' del país
Loja sostenible 2030: hacia una ciudad inteligente
Loja será la primera ciudad inteligente de Ecuador y con agricultura conectada
Ecuador rumbo a su digitalización: Loja será la primera Ciudad Inteligente y Sostenible del país
Loja enfocada en convertirse en ciudad inteligente y tecnológica
Presentaron plan para convertir a Loja en ciudad inteligente
As with all SMART City projects, Loja is building out a surveillance camera network.(3)
SMART City camera infrastructure is being sold to the public as something beneficial to community security. We are told that it is there to catch criminals, narcos, thieves, terrorists, etc.
With crime waves sweeping across Ecuador people are much more susceptible to falling for this ploy.
Elsewhere in Ecuador, Quito claims to be Latin Americas first SMART City(4) and concurrently with Loja, claims to be Ecuador's first SMART City. Cuenca hosted a SMART City Conference.(5) Guayquil has it's SMART City diagnosis available online.(6) Riobamba has won the “Agendas Digitales” contest as a successful case in the development of a SMART City.(7) Port of Manta, Portoviejo, Jaramijó and Montecristi are all part of the “the most important and ambitious urban development project in Ecuador”.(8)
But to put all the propaganda hoopla into perspective, you can start here: Ciudades de 15 minutos, ensayo de gulag(9)
As author Karina Mariani states, “But no matter how much good propaganda they invent, the ‘15-minute city’ [SMART city] is not a city but a ghetto, a ‘no place’ destined to kill all freedom, a rehearsal for a gulag.”
CUENCA HAS SECURITY MONITORING CENTER WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
A new security monitoring center was inaugurated in Cuenca on Thursday, April 25, 2024. The municipal investment exceeds 1.2 million dollars. This space has state-of-the-art equipment including artificial intelligence systems.
The center is managed by the Consejo de Seguridad Ciudadana (Citizen Security Council -- CSC). Cuenca's CSC has 260 video surveillance cameras as part of it's system.
According to the mayor, Cristian Zamora, this monitoring center has a system that will be expanded in the coming months.
It is a panel with 16 monitors that allow observing what is happening in the sectors where the CSC cameras are installed. The screen - imported from China - will reflect the images projected by the video surveillance cameras. These are located in different sectors of the city. The cameras to be integrated are those installed on buses, cabs and in rural areas of Cuenca. Later it is planned to include the areas of greater affluence. The mayor also explained that the goal is to integrate the city's security systems with those of public services and other entities, in order to have greater control.
The system uses 10 artificial intelligence cameras, and another 10 cameras known as "LPR", which are used to recognize the license plates of the vehicles that travel daily on the roads. The current municipal administration has already installed a first group of these "LPR" cameras on the Cuenca-Molleturo-El Empalme state highway, near El Cajas National Park.
The purpose is to know which vehicles enter and leave the city in order to keep a proper record.
"In the new room, this work is done with artificial intelligence so that they can warn us of possible situations," said Juan Carlos Vélez, coordinator of Innovation and Technology of the CSC. The cameras allow video analytics and an artificial intelligence detection system.
With the artificial intelligence systems of the new room, it will be possible to identify human behavior in order to establish possible crimes.
In this way, it will be possible to act before a crime occurs in order to inform the National Police, Citizen Guard and other control entities, who are responsible for responding to calls. This lays the groundwork for pre-crime, where a person can be charged and convicted of a crime based on computer analytics before actually commiting an offense.
The CSC also works in coordination with the Integrated Security System (ECU 911). Every action is reported.(38)
(Inteligencia artificial usará nueva sala de monitoreos and
Cuenca cuenta con centro de monitoreo de seguridad con inteligencia artificial)
FROM ECU-911 TO... ECUADOR'S SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM
The cameras are not about security for the community but the total control and compliance of the community. It is about exporting the social credit system(10) from China to the rest of the world. (Source 1, Source 2, Source 3)(11) The Social Credit System is a national credit rating and blacklist developed by the government of China. The system assigns a rating value to individuals based on their compliance with social and political expectations and rewards or punishes individuals based on their behavior.
In a social credit system, when people “lose points”, they can be forbidden from travel, renting an apartment, buying goods, and other daily activities. Surveillance cameras can identify people who do not comply with mask wearing, are unvaccinated, or have “symptoms” during alleged pandemics.(12) Ecuador made use of this system to enforce lockdown protocols during the PLANdemic.(13) Further development and expansion of this system can only be expected to increase the State's ability to impose compliance.
Over 6,000 cameras have been installed in Ecuador by Chinese companies, primarily the state-owned defense contractor subsidy CEIEC and Huawei, to build out ECU-911.(14) This Chinese built and installed system is comprised of new surveillance cameras, drones, automated evidence processing systems, and increased manpower to manage each of these new technologies, which have been collectively dubbed the ECU-911 Integrated Security Service.(15)
With the help of Chinese technology, ECU-911 now boasts thermal cameras that monitor snowcapped volcanoes for signs of activity, drones capable of night vision, an automated platform for sending video evidence to courts, and an Artificial Intelligence research lab. It is also testing large-scale uses of facial recognition to catch suspects in major cities and their airports.
These cameras collect footage from all 24 provinces across the country into control centers (from the Galapagos to the Amazon). One of these control centers is located in Loja. The ECU-911 system video feed utilizes facial recognition technology and tracks mobile phone users.(16) This feed is shared with the feared National Intelligence Secretariat (Seinain). The system is modeled after China's authoritarian surveillance network and has been used to track, intimidate and target political opponents and environmentalists in Ecuador.(17)
READ:
4.300 cámaras de vigilancia en Ecuador: el sistema de inteligencia de China que se exportó al país(18)
Both the United States(19) and United Kingdom(20) governments have recognized Chinese built surveillance systems as a national security threat. Camera firms like Hikvision(21) and Dahua(22) are shipped with facial recognition capabilities that can be used for spying. Both brands have been demonstrated to have back door access available to anyone. (Source 1, Source 2, Source 3)(23) The technologies that Ecuador buys mainly come from Hikvision from China, Axis from Sweden, and Verint from Israel and the United States.
China has faced accusations of bugging its IT exports in the past, most notably after a report from Le Monde that servers at the China-built African Union (AU) headquarters in Ethiopia were sending information straight to Shanghai every night. China strenuously denied the report. Huawei, the key IT and communications provider for the AU headquarters, manufactures many of the cameras bought by ECU-911, according to government procurement documents. (24)
READ:
Anaís Córdova: «Estamos viviendo bajo una constante videovigilancia en Ecuador»(17)
Ecuador’s government has claimed that the Chinese-built surveillance system is being used to bring down murder rates. Some Ecuadorians have conversely claimed that attacks are still widespread, and even take place in plain sight of the cameras. (25)
The claim that such systems deter crime is belied by the fact that homicide rates had been in decline for many years prior to the installation of the surveillance system.(26) This suggests that other factors may be responsible for the drop in crime. Additionally, two analyses(27) have revealed no noticeable reduction in crime(17) after such surveillance systems are installed.
[For a deeper analysis of surveillance cameras and crime, please see the article, “Do Surveillance Cameras Control Crime?”]
Throughout Ecuador, in the name of efficiency and security,(28) plans are being laid to build out the digital prison. The process of developing digital identities and camera facial recognition(29) is underway as tens of thousands of kilometers of fiber optic lines are laid out alongside ever expanding wireless networks.(7) Telecom providers are tracking the movement of people through each metro stop in Quito, the number of passengers per metro line, how long a person spends on the metro, the starting point of their journey, the purpose of the trip and hourly distribution of each trip.(30) Project “Ojos de Aguila” identifies people and links car license plates to individuals.(31) It would not be unreasonable to anticipate that Ecuador will follow China with the use of Artificial Intelligence to identify “pre-crime”, that of course exempts politicians and selected other members of the elite from such scrutiny.(32)
Pre-crime is the idea that the occurrence of a crime can be anticipated before it happens. Popularized by science fiction author Philip K. Dick, and the movie, “Minority Report”, pre-crime is gaining traction in criminal justice systems to focus on crimes not yet committed. Pre-crime intervenes to punish, disrupt, incapacitate or restrict those deemed to embody future crime threats, based on data gathered through surveillance of suspects’ cell phone conversations, internet searches, and patterns detected by cameras and other means. Conviction by algorithms.
“Surveillance can have a chilling effect on freedom of movement, assembly, speech and expression,” explained Paul Bischoff, an online privacy expert and editor of Comparitech. “Someone who knows they’re being watched might be afraid to visit a religious place of worship or a political rally.”(25)
“Some autocratic governments - for example, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia - are exploiting AI technology for mass surveillance purposes,” Steven Feldstein writes in a paper for Carnegie. “Other governments with dismal human rights records are exploiting AI surveillance in more limited ways to reinforce repression. Yet all political contexts run the risk of unlawfully exploiting AI surveillance technology to obtain certain political objectives.”(33)
One way of looking at the issue is not simply to focus on the surveillance technology, but “the export of authoritarianism”, says journalist Melissa Chan, adding that “some would argue that the Chinese are far less discriminating in terms of which governments they're willing to work with”.(34)
Due to the pervasiveness of deals with leading SMART City developers like Huawei(35) and Hikvision, and the prevalence of American software platforms like Google and Meta (WhatsApp and Facebook), Ecuador’s surveillance grid and control system appears to be be a US/Chinese hybrid.
For an insightful pre-Covid era piece of journalism (before the news was almost entirely replaced with propaganda), see this investigation into Ecuador's ECU-911 surveillance system:
How China Trains the World’s Autocrats to Surveil Their People | NYT(36)
This is a video that describes the government spying situation here in Ecuador. Keep in mind that the spying program has advanced a lot since the date of this New York Times report (2019).
One only needs to look to neighboring Venezuela to see where this is all heading:
“In Venezuela, Maduro intends to use the ration card – the “Fatherland Card” – to control Venezuelans’ purchases of food, water, fuel, and medicine. Reports suggest that, using the Chinese system, Maduro will be able to block Venezuelan individuals he disapproves of from eating or receiving healthcare, among other services.”(37)
PROTECTING OUR COMMUNITY
Once we realize the big picture of the growth of the surveillance state worldwide, we can see that the seemingly innocent presence of “security cameras” in our little town could actually be bringing the end of our freedom to pursue our lives as we wish. The future of our lifestyles – personal, family, and as Ecuadorian citizens and residents – depends on what actions we take now.
We must act quickly to stop this intrusion. The more established the camera system is, the more difficult it is to undo.
What you can do:
Start talking to people in the community about your concerns. We need to create a social consensus that is opposed to this type of technology. In Victor Carpio´s Facebook post(1) he lists the supporters of the camera installations:
Rev. Father Sixto Guanin
Agro Ecological Fair of Vilcabamba
Vilcabamba Express Transportation Cooperative
Cooperativa de Transporte Terminal Terrestre
Residents of Barrio Central (Mrs. Gloria Gaona, Mr. Jhony Jara, Mr. Abraham León, Mr. Ángel Jara, Mrs. Marisol Delgado)
Mr. Adalber Gaona
Mr. Manuel Granda and family
Mrs. Albita Bejarano and family
Mrs. Mariana Tocto
Mr. Eduardo Espinoza
Elected members GAD Parroquial period 2023-2027
If you know any of these people or organizations, ask them why they supported this kind of project and explain to them that the end game is total government/corporate control and compliance, not security. Also see the comments(1) by the people who posted their support of the project. If you know them, speak with them, too.
Be respectful in your communication. We do not want these well-intentioned individuals to get defensive about their decision, but rather to comprehend the threat that lies behind these technologies. We all want to live our lives feeling safe.
When I spoke with Victor he said that the camera installation is part of a national security program. He said he is just following orders and that I should talk to the governor of the province about my concerns. He said that some foreigners had come to speak with him about their concerns regarding the cameras, but that Vilcabamba is not an independent political entity. I offered to have Aman Jabbi, whistleblower and global expert on the digital prison, share a presentation with Sr. Carpio and the group of camera supporters from the Facebook post. Sr. Carpio was not interested in seeing Aman’s presentation. He said that there are a lot of other issues that he is dealing with. He seemed avoidant in addressing the issue.
While our Presidente de la Junta Parroquial may have been following orders, he actively supported the camera installation project by soliciting funds for and organizing the installation. This is understandable, given that Sr. Carpio probably was responding to a recent wave of violent robberies. Some people support the installation of these cameras because they believe that increased surveillance makes the town safer. They do not understand the global pattern and agenda to enslave humanity.
Two things that I learned after speaking with almost all of the people on the list from the Facebook post:
- The people on the list contributed financially to the installation of the cameras.
- Each camera cost about $5,000 according to one person.
Maintaining our freedoms is our collective responsibility. Freedom cannot be maintained by a few. You can either accept slavery or take action.
How do we insure community security without being led into a technological slave system?
For ideas on the answer to this question, see the article, “How Do We Take Responsibility for our Own Security?”
REFERENCES
(1) Victor Carpio, May 2023: https://www.facebook.com/victordcarpioc/posts/pfbid0341Z9W6i6SZquAXGyaBLVLSga6AHfThk8mDKEPdBVpiFBH9iNB9cscYQ6WmQyoBYCl
(2) Por qué Loja será la primera 'smart city' del país, October 2022: https://www.primicias.ec/noticias/tecnologia/loja-primera-smart-city-ecuador/
Loja sostenible 2030: hacia una ciudad inteligente, July 2022: https://www.lahora.com.ec/loja/loja-sostenible-2030-ciudad-inteligente/
Loja será la primera ciudad inteligente de Ecuador y con agricultura conectada, October 2022: https://dplnews.com/loja-sera-la-primera-ciudad-inteligente-de-ecuador-y-con-agricultura-conectada/
Ecuador rumbo a su digitalización: Loja será la primera Ciudad Inteligente y Sostenible del país, October 2022: https://www.telecomunicaciones.gob.ec/ecuador-rumbo-a-su-digitalizacion-loja-sera-la-primera-ciudad-inteligente-y-sostenible-del-pais/
Loja enfocada en convertirse en ciudad inteligente y tecnológica, November 2021: https://www.lahora.com.ec/loja/loja-enfocada-en-convertirse-en-ciudad-inteligente-y-tecnologica/
Presentaron plan para convertir a Loja en ciudad inteligente, November 2020: https://www.lahora.com.ec/noticias/presentaron-plan-para-convertir-a-loja-en-ciudad-inteligente/
(3) Cámaras de video vigilancia con megafonía IP, January 2023: https://www.facebook.com/Consejo-de-Seguridad-Ciudadana-Loja-100348855358600/videos/1205391640362555/?extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C&mibextid=irwG9G
(4) Quito podría convertirse en la primera ciudad inteligente de América Latina, June 2017: https://www.elcomercio.com/guaifai/quito-ciudadesinteligentes-herramienta-telefonicamovistar-tecnologia.html
(5) SMART CITY Ecuador, November 2023: https://smartcityecuador.com/
(6) SMART CITY: DIAGNOSTICO DE LA CIUDAD DE GUAYAQUIL (ECUADOR), February 2018: https://riunet.upv.es/bitstream/handle/10251/98485/Smart%20City.%20Diagnostico%20de%20la%20ciudad%20de%20Guayaquil%20(Ecuador).pdf?sequence=1
(7) Ecuador expuso su experiencia sobre el desarrollo de Smart Cities en el Hábitat III: https://www.telecomunicaciones.gob.ec/ecuador-expuso-su-experiencia-sobre-el-desarrollo-de-smart-cities-en-el-habitat-iii/
(8) Sistematización Congreso Internacional Smart City 2021, July 2021: https://smartcityecuador.com/sistematizacion-congreso-internacional-smart-city-2021/
(9) Ciudades de 15 minutos, ensayo de gulag, February 2023: https://gaceta.es/mundo/ciudades-de-quince-minutos-ensayo-de-gulag-20230226-0715/
“Pero por más propaganda buenista que inventen, la “Ciudad de 15 minutos” [ciudad SMART] no es una ciudad sino un gueto, un “no lugar” destinado a matar toda libertad, un ensayo de gulag.”
(10) What's Your Social Credit Score?, December 2019: https://www.bitchute.com/video/wP321Miy7zQ/
(11) ‘The Entire System Is Designed to Suppress Us.’ What the Chinese Surveillance State Means for the Rest of the World, November 2019: https://time.com/5735411/china-surveillance-privacy-issues/
China in the Age of Surveillance, September 2022: https://quillette.com/2022/09/25/china-in-the-age-of-surveillance/
Inside China's Massive Surveillance Operation, May 2019: https://www.wired.com/story/inside-chinas-massive-surveillance-operation/
(12) Sistema de videovigilancia en ciudades inteligentes, January 2023: https://www.infoteknico.com/sistema-de-videovigilancia/
(13) Chinese tech supports Ecuador's response to COVID-19, May 2020: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-05/30/c_139100735.htm
(14) Cámaras de Videovigilancia: https://www.ecu911.gob.ec/camaras-de-videovigilancia/
(15) China–Ecuador relations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Ecuador_relations
(16) Ecuador utiliza tecnología de vigilancia china, February 2022: https://www.infoteknico.com/ecuador-vigilancia-china/
(17) Anaís Córdova: «Estamos viviendo bajo una constante videovigilancia en Ecuador», March 2022: https://es.globalvoices.org/2022/03/31/anais-cordova-estamos-viviendo-bajo-una-constante-videovigilancia-en-ecuador/
(18) 4.300 cámaras de vigilancia en Ecuador: el sistema de inteligencia de China que se exportó al país, April 2019: https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2019/04/24/nota/7300268/hecho-china-exportado-ecuador-aparato-vigilancia-estatal/
(19) Continúa el bloqueo: Estados Unidos va contra las cámaras chinas de vídeo vigilancia, May 2019: https://rpp.pe/tecnologia/mas-tecnologia/bloqueo-a-china-estados-unidos-va-contra-las-camaras-chinas-de-video-vigilancia-noticia-1198462?ref=rpp
(20) Reino Unido El Gobierno británico veta las cámaras de seguridad fabricadas en China, November 2022: https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20221124/gobierno-britanico-veta-camaras-seguridad-china/2410018.shtml
(21) Hikvision: https://videovigilanciaecuador.com/hikvision/
(22) Dahua: https://www.dahuasecurity.com/la
(23) The tech flaw that lets hackers control surveillance cameras, June 2023: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65975446
A Tiny Blog Took on Big Surveillance in China – and Won, April 2023: https://www.wired.com/story/surveillance-china-security-camera-giant-ipvm/
Hacked Hikvision IP Camera Map USA And Europe, January 2018: https://ipvm.com/reports/hik-hack-map
(24) Ecuador’s All-Seeing Eye Is Made in China, August 2018: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/09/ecuadors-all-seeing-eye-is-made-in-china/
(25) Surveillance cameras have become one of China’s most valuable exports – here’s why: https://www.worldfinance.com/featured/surveillance-cameras-have-become-one-of-chinas-most-valuable-exports-heres-why
(26) From Ecuador to Kyrgyzstan: A Quieter Story of China’s Digital Belts and Roads, December 2019: https://www.chinausfocus.com/finance-economy/from-ecuador-to-kyrgyzstan-a-quieter-story-of-chinas-digital-belts-and-roads
(27) Los países con más videovigilancia del mundo, en un sorprendente gráfico, October 2022: https://www.xataka.com/magnet/paises-videovigilancia-mundo-sorprendente-grafico
(28) Quito se convierte en la primera ciudad inteligente del país, July 2019: https://www.quitoinforma.gob.ec/2019/07/29/quito-se-convierte-en-la-primera-ciudad-inteligente-del-pais/
(29) Quito será la primera ciudad inteligente del país: https://www.telecomunicaciones.gob.ec/quito-sera-la-primera-ciudad-inteligente-del-pais/
(30) Quito becomes the first Smart City in Latin America, July 2017: https://telefonicatech.com/en/blog/quito-becomes-first-smart-city-latin
(31) Ojos de Aguila: http://www.emseguridad-q.gob.ec/index.php/proyectos/item/ojos-de-aguila-2
(32) La tecnología China que predice los crímenes antes de que sucedan, June 2022: https://www.elconfidencial.com/tecnologia/novaceno/2022-06-29/china-anticipar-crimenes-inteligencia-artificial_3451406/
(33) The Global Expansion of AI Surveillance, September 2019: https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/09/17/global-expansion-of-ai-surveillance-pub-79847
(34) Should we be worried by ever more CCTV cameras?, November 2019: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50348861
(35) Beyond 5G: Huawei's Links To Xinjiang And China's Surveillance State, April 2019: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/04/25/huawei-xinjiang-and-chinas-high-tech-surveillance-state-joining-the-dots/?sh=2d291f61cd52
(36) How China Trains the World’s Autocrats to Surveil Their People | NYT, April 2019:
(37) Report: Huawei Helped Replicate China’s Orwellian Surveillance System in Ecuador, April 2019: https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2019/04/25/china-got-huawei-to-build-ecuador-camera-system/
(38) Inteligencia artificial usará nueva sala de monitoreos, April, 2024: https://elmercurio.com.ec/2024/04/11/inteligencia-artificial-nueva-sala-monitoreos/
Cuenca cuenta con centro de monitoreo de seguridad con inteligencia artificial, April 2024: https://elmercurio.com.ec/2024/04/25/centro-monitoreo-seguridad-cuenca-inaugura/
Read more of the…
TECHNOCRACY SERIES
Do Surveillance Cameras Control Crime?
Surveillance Cameras in Vilcabamba (this article)
How do we Take Responsibility for our own Security?
How to Avoid and Eliminate the Beast System’s SMART Technology