Fifty-seven prison guards and police, held hostage for more than 24 hours by inmates in several prisons in Ecuador, have been released, the prison administration (SNAI) announced on Friday.
The 50 officers and seven police officers, “who were held in six prisons” in the country, “have already been released, have undergone medical assessments to verify their health and are in good health”, said SNAI.
Laconic, the press release does not give any other details on their release or the circumstances of these hostage-takings, while the authorities have observed complete silence since the announcement of the incident the day before.
“The Unified Command Post (PMU) directed the execution of the coordinated actions that made it possible to achieve this objective”, simply indicated the SNAI, affirming that “at the moment the activities are taking place normally in the” penitentiary centers .
“We are worried about the safety of our agents,” Interior Minister Juan Zapata had simply acknowledged, referring to “planned actions” aimed at “guaranteeing their safety”.
The main hostage-taking apparently took place in the prison of Cuenca (south-west), where the detainees intended to protest against operations to search their cells.
A video broadcast on social networks, relayed by the local press but impossible to authenticate with certainty, showed a group of men in uniform, apparently held in a cell and calling on the government to negotiate.
The surroundings of the penitentiary establishment remained completely cordoned off Friday by three cordons of security forces which prevented vehicles from approaching less than a kilometer, noted an AFP photographer on the spot.
From a nearby hill, you could see three inmates on the roof of the prison, one of them dressed like a Santa Claus in pajamas, a cap on his head, and a walkie-talkie in his hand.
According to the SNAI, the hostage-taking was “a response by criminal groups after the interventions of the police in the penitentiary centers of the country, the purpose of which is the discovery of prohibited objects which are used during the violence” between detainees who have claimed some 430 lives since 2021.
“The measures we have taken, especially in the penitentiary system, have provoked violent reactions from criminal organizations that seek to intimidate the state”, declared for his part President Guillermo Lasso on X (ex- Twitter).
On Wednesday, hundreds of soldiers and police carried out a search operation for weapons, ammunition and explosives in another prison, in Latacunga (south).
In addition, six Colombians with a heavy criminal past, imprisoned for the assassination on August 9 of one of the favorites in the first round of the presidential election on August 20, had been transferred.
The hostage taking took place after the explosion of two car bombs in front of buildings belonging to the penitentiary administration in Quito, without causing any casualties. Twelve people, including one of Colombian nationality, were arrested for these facts, according to the authorities.
An attempted mutiny also took place in a detention center for adolescents in the capital.
Police raids, cell searches, transfer of prisoners… Nothing helps: gangs and drug traffickers continue to impose their law and clash in Ecuadorian prisons, where the State still appears powerless to take over the situation in hand.
Once considered an island of peace in Latin America, Ecuador, located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s two largest producers of cocaine, 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”, reputed to work with the Mexican cartels, are in particular implicated in terrible massacres between prisoners who are members of rival gangs, with victims burned alive or literally cut up with knives.
On July 24, President Lasso declared a state of emergency throughout the country’s prison system for 60 days, a measure which notably allows the State to send the army to prisons.
“(…) We are firm and we will not back down from our objective of capturing dangerous criminals, dismantling criminal gangs and pacifying the country’s prisons”, assured Mr. Lasso once again on Thursday.
Ecuador has 36 overcrowded prisons for 32,200 detainees, half for drug trafficking.
09/02/2023 00:37:34 – Quito (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
