Fifty-seven prison guards and police officers who were held hostage for more than 24 hours by inmates in several prisons in Ecuador have been released, the prison administration (SNAI) said on Friday.
The 50 agents and seven police officers “held in six prisons” in the country “have already been released, have undergone medical examinations to check their health status and are in good health,” the SNAI said.
The press release laconically provides no further details about their release or the circumstances of these hostage-takings, while the authorities have maintained complete silence since the incident was announced the day before.
“The unified command post (PMU) led the implementation of coordinated actions that made it possible to achieve this goal,” the SNAI simply stated, confirming that “currently, activities in penal institutions are taking place normally.”
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“We are concerned about the safety of our agents,” Interior Minister Juan Zapata simply admitted, referring to “planned measures” aimed at “ensuring their safety.”
The main hostage-taking apparently took place in the Cuenca prison (southwest), where the inmates wanted to protest against the searches of their cells.
A video broadcast on social media, shared by the local press but not authenticated with certainty, showed a group of men in uniform apparently held in a cell and calling on the government to negotiate.
As an AFP photographer on the scene noted, the area surrounding the correctional facility remained completely cordoned off on Friday with three security cordons, preventing vehicles from approaching within a kilometer radius.
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From a nearby hill, three inmates could be seen on the roof of the prison, one of them dressed in pajamas like Santa Claus, with a hat on his head and a walkie-talkie in his hand.
According to SNAI, the hostage-taking was “a response by criminal groups following the intervention of public authority in the country’s penitentiaries, the aim of which was to discover prohibited objects used during the violence” between prisoners, which has caused around 430 deaths since 2021 .
“The measures we have taken, especially in the penal system, have provoked violent reactions from criminal organizations that want to intimidate the state,” said President Guillermo Lasso on Twitter.
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On Wednesday, hundreds of soldiers and police conducted a search for weapons, ammunition and explosives at another prison in Latacunga (south).
In addition, six Colombians with serious criminal pasts who were imprisoned on August 9 for the assassination of one of the favorites in the first round of the August 20 presidential election were transferred.
The hostage-taking took place after two car bombs exploded in front of prison administration buildings in Quito, without causing any deaths. According to authorities, twelve people, including one a Colombian national, were arrested for these acts.
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There was also an attempted mutiny in an internment camp for young people in the capital.
Police raids, cell searches, prisoner transports… Nothing helps: gangs and drug traffickers continue to enforce their laws and clash in Ecuadorian prisons, where the state still seems powerless to control the situation. in the hand.
Ecuador, once considered an island of peace in Latin America and located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest cocaine producers, has been hit for several months by an unprecedented wave of violence linked to organized crime and drug trafficking.
Two gangs, “Los Choneros” and “Los Lobos,” which are said to work with Mexican cartels, are particularly involved in horrific massacres between prisoners who are members of rival gangs, with victims being burned alive or literally cut with knives.
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On July 24, President Lasso declared a 60-day state of emergency throughout the country’s prison system, a measure that notably allows the state to send the army into prisons.
“(…) We are steadfast and will not deviate from our goal of catching dangerous criminals, dismantling criminal gangs and pacifying the country’s prisons,” Lasso assured again on Thursday.
Ecuador has 36 overcrowded prisons with 32,200 inmates, half of them for drug trafficking.