It is a hostage-taking that is shaking Ecuador. Prisoners from six penitentiaries in Ecuador are holding 57 guards and police in retaliation for the operations of the state armed forces in the prisons, the body in charge of the latter (SNAI) said on Thursday August 31. Amid a day of violence caused by the explosion of two car bombs in Quito, the SNAI said in a statement that seven police officers and 50 prison guards “are being held in six centers of deprivation of liberty”, without giving further details. details.
Interior Minister Juan Zapata said earlier that all guards were being held in the Cuenca penitentiary (southwest), where inmates have been protesting since Wednesday against police pressure in prison. The hostage-taking “would be a response of criminal groups after the interventions of the police force in the penitentiary centers of the country, the purpose of which is the discovery of prohibited objects which are used during the violence”, specified the SNAI.
On Wednesday, hundreds of soldiers and police carried out a search operation for weapons, ammunition and explosives in a prison in Latacunga (south), one of the largest in the country and the scene of frequent deadly clashes between prisoners. Some 430 inmates have died in Ecuador since 2021.
The hypotheses on the reasons for this hostage-taking multiplied during the day on Thursday, but the SNAI had advanced from the start the track of reprisals after this “intervention” of the police force in Latacunga. Later, the authorities indicated that the taking of hostages was a sign of protest against the transfer of prisoners to other penitentiaries.
“We are concerned for the safety of our officers,” Juan Zapata told a press conference in the capital Quito. According to the SNAI, “a series of actions are being taken to restore order in the prison system” with the help of the military and the police.
In the face of recurring waves of prison violence involving gangs linked to Mexican or Colombian cartels, President Guillermo Lasso declared a systemwide state of emergency on July 24 for 60 days. It is this measure which notably allows the army to be sent to prisons.
Drug-trafficking groups are waging war for power in the country’s penitentiaries and using them as bases for their various operations. At the end of July, 31 detainees died in bloody clashes lasting four days at Guayaquil prison (southwest).
On the 26th, 17 guards and administrative employees held hostage after a riot in a prison in Esmeraldas (northwest) were released. The mutiny had taken place in response to the declaration of a state of emergency in the prison system.
