The National Service for Comprehensive Attention (SNAI) to Persons Deprived of Liberty, a penitentiary body in Ecuador, announced this Monday (15) that it found a dead prisoner and discovered the escape of 48 other inmates, five of whom have already been recaptured, in Esmeraldas prison, capital of the province of the same name in the northwest of the country and on the border with Colombia.
The SNAI said in a statement that it found a dead prisoner and that 48 inmates had escaped during the police and military intervention on Sunday (14) in this prison, which had been taken over by rioting inmates in a situation that was repeated in at least six other penitentiaries. from the country.
On Sunday, more than a thousand soldiers and police entered the prison to carry out a general search, but upon inspection “it became clear that 48 prisoners had escaped”, the agency said. The authorities activated the protocols that are applied in this type of situation and five prisoners were recaptured, added the SNAI.
The penitentiary institution stated that, in the same intervention, it was informed of the “death of a person deprived of liberty who was in that center”, which is why it “coordinated with the competent institution to determine the causes of this event”.
Last week, at least seven Ecuadorian prisons were taken over by inmates, taking more than 200 prison guards and administrative staff hostage.
Last week, the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, signed a state of emergency decree valid for 60 days across the country to end violent actions in prisons.
The following day, the situation spread and violence also took over the country's streets, with explosions, burning vehicles, robberies, assaults and even an invasion of a television station by armed criminals, in addition to riots in prisons.
During these simultaneous disturbances, there were also mass escapes, such as the one that occurred in the Riobamba penitentiary, from where 32 inmates escaped, including Fabricio Colón Pico, alleged leader of the Los Lobos criminal gang and accused of planning an attack against the attorney general, Diana Salazar.
It was then that Noboa signed a decree recognizing an “internal armed conflict” in Ecuador and ordered the Armed Forces and police to neutralize the organized crime gangs blamed for the spiral of violence, which he described as “terrorist groups and non-belligerent state agents.” .
The spiral of violence erupted a week ago, shortly after Noboa announced it would move forward with its Phoenix Plan, aimed at regaining control of prisons, many of them dominated by organized crime gangs, where more than 450 inmates have been killed since 2020 in a series of prison massacres between rival groups.
Although the wave of violence in Ecuador has subsided in recent days, security forces maintain extensive patrolling of the streets and operations in prisons. (With EFE Agency)
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