This January 19, Argentina deported the relatives of the Ecuadorian drug trafficking leader alias 'Fito' in the midst of the critical security situation in Ecuador. His wife and three children were repatriated to Guayaquil by military plane after his arrest in Córdoba. With no more traces of 'Fito' in Argentina, the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, confirmed the expulsion of the relatives. This Friday a report was released stating that the leader of 'Los Choneros' would not be on his way to Colombia, but rather to Peru and then to Bolivia.
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Argentina deported the relatives of José Adolfo Macías, alias 'Fito', leader of one of the most important drug trafficking gangs in Ecuador. This Friday, January 19, his wife and three of his children arrived in the coastal city of Guayaquil on a military plane.
The operation took place after they were detained in a private neighborhood on the outskirts of the Argentine city of Córdoba. According to local media reports, 'Fito's' relatives had acquired a house in that place since November.
According to the Minister of Security of Argentina, Patricia Bullrich, the relatives of 'Fito' had traveled to that country a few days before the leader of 'Los Choneros' escaped from prison, a fact that precipitated a worsening of the crisis in Ecuador.
“We had an alert from the Ecuadorian authorities that the family of this murderer 'Fito' was hiding here in Argentina, in the province of Córdoba,” Bullrich explained.
ARGENTINA: HOSTILE TERRITORY FOR NARCOCCRIMINALS
This is how the wife and children of the very dangerous Ecuadorian drug trafficker José Adolfo “Fito” Macías Villamar, leader of the violent narcocriminal organization “Los Choneros”, arrived in Ecuador. We expelled them from Córdoba and Argentina.
He… pic.twitter.com/5vVhIRXlHC
— Patricia Bullrich (@PatoBullrich) January 19, 2024
In addition, the official assured that the Córdoba authorities had already carried out an investigation because the presence of the family in said neighborhood “had drawn attention.”
The minister also confirmed that there is no evidence that 'Fito' could be in Argentine territory. “It is not easy for someone with 'Fito's' characteristics to cross from Ecuador to Argentina,” she said.
Who were those extradited?
Eight people were on the Fokker F-28 plane of the Argentine Air Force, according to local Argentine media cited by EFE.
This is Inda Mariela Peñarrieta Tuarez, the wife of 'Fito' and three of their children, ages 21, 12 and four.
The other four detainees are the nephew of the drug trafficking leader, Javier Macías Alcivar, a family friend and a domestic worker, Denny Yadira Laines Basurto.
Alias 'Fito' would have no intention of arriving in Colombia
The whereabouts of 'Fito' is one of the great unknowns that remain after the security crisis in Ecuador that escalated last week.
On January 9, it was learned that the leader of 'Los Choneros' escaped when he learned that the country's authorities were going to transfer him to a maximum security prison. An action that was part of President Daniel Noboa's plan to regain control of the prisons.
Since then there have been multiple versions about the direction that the leader of 'Los Choneros' would have taken. One of them was the possibility that he would head to Colombia.
However, several Colombian media, such as 'Time' and 'WRadio' They had access to a military intelligence report in which it was stated that 'Fito' would not try to reach Colombian territory. According to the same document, it is believed that he could be on his way to Peru and then to Bolivia.
Colombia had prepared to contain a possible entry of 'Fito' into the country or the possibility that the Ecuadorian public order situation could affect the shared borders. The Government of Gustavo Petro had deployed more than 450 men and women from the National Army, the Marine Infantry and the Aerospace Force for this purpose.
Relatives ask for real change inside prisons in Ecuador
The situation of violence in Ecuador continues to not normalize. The president of the country decreed a state of “internal armed conflict” and declared 22 gangs as terrorist groups and non-state actors to be neutralized by the armed forces.
One of the critical points continues to be the prisons, where alarming events have occurred. At least 178 prison officials had been held in different prisons in the country, although they were released days later.
In this context, the families of many of the imprisoned people have demanded justice for their loved ones who have died in the country's prisons.
France 24 spoke with some of the victims who recount the violence experienced in these places. Like Ana Morales, whose son died in 2021 in the worst prison massacre in Ecuador, in the midst of the gang confrontation for control of one of the pavilions of the detention center.
Other families have denounced the constant extortion of criminal gangs, who receive blackmail to ensure the protection of their loved ones inside prisons.
Half of the entire deceased prison population is concentrated in Guayaquil alone, which is now 660 people, according to figures from the Human Rights Committee of that city.
With EFE and local media
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