The Armed Forces of Ecuador maintained its units mobilized this Sunday (14) in several prisons in the country, with the aim of regaining full control of the prisons occupied a week ago by groups of inmates. These operations continued after the announcement, on Saturday (13), of the release of all prison officers and administrative staff (more than 150) who had been taken hostage by inmates.
A strong contingent of military and police gathered this Sunday at the Number 1 Azuay Deprivation of Freedom Center, also known as Turi prison, in the city of Cuenca, in the Andean region of southern Ecuador, to intervene and regain control of its facilities . The tactical teams of the joint operation between police, military and prison officers began early and took place after it was announced that all hostages in the prison had been released.
Many of the prisoners surrendered on the floor of the Turi prison courtyards formed lines under the custody of the uniformed armed men who entered the prison. Unlike previous days, there were no more prisoners on the roofs of the prison, nor were shots or gunshots heard, as neighbors had reported in the early hours of the morning.
This operation was also repeated in other of the country's seven prisons that were taken over by inmates at the beginning of the week and was part of a chaotic day on a national scale, when violence in prisons also took to the streets. Detonation of explosives, incineration of cars, kidnappings, murders, robberies, attacks and even the invasion of a violent and armed group in a television station in Guayaquil marked a violent week in Ecuador, which, little by little, seems to be overcoming the crisis.
The country's president, Daniel Noboa, declared a state of emergency on Monday and, the following day, signed a decree admitting “an internal armed conflict”, allowing the armed forces to intervene to “neutralize” organized crime groups that had caused chaos and who he identified as “terrorists”.
Noboa himself confirmed on Saturday night that all hostages in the prisons had been released. In some of them – such as Esmeraldas – there was support from representatives of the Catholic and Evangelical churches. At Esmeraldas prison, more than a thousand soldiers maintained their intervention in the prison this Sunday, where searches were carried out to “recover tranquility”, according to the head of police zone 1, Norman Cano.
The intervention operation “was carried out with total success”, added Cano when explaining to journalists the actions carried out in the prison of Esmeraldas, capital of the coastal province of the same name, in the northwest of the country and on the border with Colombia.
In Loja prison, the intervention was vigorous and images circulated of the military raising the country's flag as a symbol of regaining control of the prison in this city in the southern Andean region of the country.
Images of the military and police intervention operation in the prison in the coastal city of Machala, capital of the province of El Oro, on the border with Peru, also circulated on social media. One of these images shows the moment in which a strong contingent of agents, protected by armored cars, takes advantage of the explosions at the access gates to the penitentiary center to enter and take control of the prison. This type of action by security forces was also reported in other prisons in Cañar and Tungurahua.
Noboa, in a message on the social network El Oro and Esmeraldas.
The unrest in Ecuador's prisons this week came as Noboa's government prepared to launch a plan to regain control of prisons, many of which are internally dominated by criminal groups whose rivalries have left more than 450 inmates dead since 2020 in a series of prison massacres. Violence has also spread to the streets, making Ecuador one of the most violent countries in the world, with 45 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023.
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