All remaining staff and prison officials Hostages of prisoners in Ecuador's prisons they were freed overnight from Saturday to Sunday, reported the state agency responsible for prisons (SNAI).
“The security protocols and joint work with the National Police and the Armed Forces have been successfully completed with the release of all (…) detained in the various Deprivation of Liberty Centers (CPL) in the country,” he explains to the authority in a statement Opinion.
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, facing an offensive by drug trafficking groups last week, confirmed the release of personnel held in prisons in seven provinces of the country, stretching from the border with Colombia (north) to Peru (south).
“We were released. (…) Thank God we all got out okay,” said a prison guard, holding an Ecuadorian flag, standing in front of a group of released guards at the detention center in the Andean province of Cotopaxi (South). says a video posted on social media.
“Okay, okay, thank you,” a prison guard says after his release on Saturday, according to another video.
In a message on the social network
Congratulations to the patriotic, professional and valuable work of the Armed Forces, the National Police and the SNAI under the leadership of the Minister @Palencia3Monica and Gian Carlo Loffredo for the release of the security forces and prison supervision staff…
— Daniel Noboa Azin (@DanielNoboaOk) January 14, 2024
In a previous report, the SNAI said 133 guards and three administrative staff remained hostage after 41 people (24 guards and 17 staff) were released on Saturday in operations involving the Catholic Church. Other people had already been released.
On Thursday, the prison authority counted 178 hostages.
Around 20 organizations spread terror and exercise violence from prisons. The offensive is in retaliation for the Noboa government's tough policies to combat these groups in a country that was considered peaceful until a few years ago.
More than 1,000 people arrested
The crisis began last Sunday when one of the most feared drug traffickers disappeared from his prison in the port of Guayaquil (southwest), whose penitentiary has been the scene of violent massacres among inmates that have killed more than 460 people since 2021.
The escape of Adolfo Macías, known as “Fito”, leader of the largest criminal faction in the country called “Los Choneros”, was followed by a wave of violence: 19 dead, riots in prisons, employees and prison guards held by inmates, police officers kidnapped, dozens escaped Prisoners, bomb attacks and burned vehicles.
The National Service for Comprehensive Assistance to Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI) said it would investigate the causes and those responsible for the “events” in prisons.
The SNAI also reported on Saturday the death of a guard due to clashes with prisoners in El Oro province (southwest, on the border with Peru), bringing the total number of deaths to 19, including civilians, prison officials, police and other inmates in a week.
Authorities also recorded 1,105 detainees, eight “terrorists” shot, two police officers killed and 27 prisoners recaptured.
Hundreds of soldiers and police are searching for Fito while a 60day state of emergency has been in effect across the country since Monday, including in prisons, and a sixhour curfew from 11 p.m. local time (1 hour Brasília time).
The Colombian army suspects that Fito crossed the border into Colombian territory, which has the largest coca crops in the world.
“We will win”
Faced with the recent wave of violence and pressure from factions against the state, Noboa assured that he would not give in: “I believe that we will win and I will not stop fighting until we win,” he said on Friday to the BBC.
Drug traffickers use prisons as crime bureaus from which they manage the drug trade, order murders, manage the proceeds of crime, and fight to the death with rivals for power.
For many years, Ecuador was a safe country against drug trafficking, but for the United States and Europe it has become a new bastion of drug trafficking, with gangs fighting for control of territory and united in their war against the state.
In the last five years, the murder rate per 100,000 inhabitants has increased from 6 to 46 in 2023, and internal wars have occurred, just like in Colombia in the last century, but with an additional component: outofcontrol prisons.
Noboa unveiled designs for two “supermaximum” security prisons with capacity for more than 3,000 people that his government wants to build to isolate the most violent inmates. He also suggested building prison ships.
The drug trafficking operation on Tuesday included an attack on a live television station that caused outrage and had global repercussions.
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