Ecuador
The President ordered the State Prison Administration (SNAI) to take over the repatriation of foreigners serving sentences in the country
Per AFPJAN 30, 2024 at 2:11 p.m
Presidentelect of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa Rodrigo Buendia / AFP
Prisoners repatriated from Ecuador will not be allowed to return “forever,” said President Daniel Noboa this Tuesday (30), who ordered the return of foreign prisoners to their respective countries of origin.
The returnees are “banned from entering Ecuador forever,” said Noboa in an interview with the broadcaster Ecuavisa.
On Monday (29), the President ordered the State Prison Administration (SNAI) to take over the repatriation of foreigners serving sentences in the country.
The measure, dubbed “mass expulsion” by countries including Colombia, aims to reduce overcrowding in violent Ecuadorian prisons, which have capacity for around 30,200 inmates.
The leftwing government of Gustavo Petro rejected Noboa's plan with around 1,500 Colombian prisoners, viewing it as a unilateral measure that would in practice result in the release of those sent back across the border.
Asked about Bogota's position, Noboa explained: “This is Colombia's problem, but these people will not be able to return to Ecuador.”
According to the 2022 prison census, there were 31,300 prisoners in Ecuador's 36 prisons, of which 3,200 were foreigners.
In his plan to pacify the prison system, Noboa plans to build maximum security prisons for the most dangerous inmates over the next 11 months.
The president, who took office in November for a brief term until 2025, declared war on around twenty drug trafficking gangs linked to Colombian and Mexican cartels following the escape of a drug lord.
Amid the violence, the president mobilized military force on the streets and in prisons, resulting in around 4,500 detainees being arrested and 40 tons of drugs seized this month.
The gangs' violent response resulted in about twenty deaths in just over a week.