All prison staff held by inmates in various prisons in Ecuador are now free, the SNAI prison agency reported on the night of this Saturday, January 13. A total of 178 officials, 158 guards and 20 administrative employees, were detained on January 8 in at least seven prisons. The prison service also confirmed the death of a guard in one of the prisons. The prison crisis in Ecuador has worsened, within a wave of violence that has also taken to the streets and led the Government to declare a state of emergency and “internal armed conflict” to restore order.
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The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, confirmed this Saturday, January 13, that the more than 170 prison agents and administrative officials who were taken hostage in seven prisons by mutinous inmates at the beginning of this week are now free.
In a message on his X network account, the president congratulated the law enforcement forces for having achieved the release of the hostages in the prisons of the Andean provinces of Azuay, Cañar, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua and Loja; as well as in the coastal areas of El Oro and Esmeraldas.
Congratulations to the patriotic, professional and brave work of the Armed Forces, National Police and the SNAI under the leadership of the minister @Palencia3Monica and Gian Carlo Loffredo for achieving the release of the prison security and surveillance body and the staff…
— Daniel Noboa Azin (@DanielNoboaOk) January 14, 2024
The SNAI, in a statement, highlighted that the joint actions between the military, police and prison guards “concluded successfully with the release of all the employees of the Penitentiary Security and Surveillance Corps and members of the administrative staff, who were held in the different Prison Centers. Deprivation of Liberty (CPL) of the country”.
He added that they are carrying out “medical evaluations to safeguard the released servants” who, in some cases, such as in the Esmeraldas prison, were also rescued thanks to the mediation of representatives of the Catholic and evangelical churches.
Hours earlier, the penitentiary agency had reported that 133 penitentiary agents and three administrative officials were being held in various prisons.
He also reported that in the Machala prison, the capital of the province of El Oro, bordering Peru, In the early hours of this Saturday there was a confrontation between members of the security forces and inmates in which a prison officer died and another was injured.
The unrest in the Ecuadorian prisons that occurred this week arose when the Government of President Daniel Noboa was preparing to implement its plan to regain control of the prisons, many of them internally dominated by criminal groups, whose rivalries have left more than 450 prisoners killed since 2020 in a series of prison massacres.
On January 9, Noboa declared an “internal armed conflict” in the country and designated around twenty armed groups as “terrorist organizations,” after armed men violently broke into a public television channel in Guayaquil.
The violent acts worsened after the Government decreed a state of emergency following the escape of several prisoners, including the leader of the 'Los Choneros' gang, Adolfo Macías, alias 'Fito'.
The Police and the Armed Forces maintain their operations in prisons and throughout the country. More than 800 people have been arrested since last Monday.
Ecuador is dealing with a security crisis that worsened this week with the assault on a television stationunexplained explosions in several cities and the kidnapping of police officers.
With EFE
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