A total of 139 prison officerss were taken hostage in five prisons in Ecuadorwhere The prisoners have rioted, as confirmed this Wednesday by the state penitentiary agency, called National Comprehensive Care Service (SNAI) to Adult Persons Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders.
Among those held in prisons of Cuenca, Azogues, Napo, Ambato and Latacunga There are 125 prison guards, while another fourteen are administrative staff.
The SNAI has not confirmed the state of health of the people, who have been held as a protest by the prisoners against the Government's attempts to transfer inmates to other prisons.
(Also: Colombia strengthened the presence of Public Forces on the border due to the situation in Ecuador).
National Police and Armed Forces continue to work jointly for the release of all personnel in penitentiary centers
“National Police and Armed Forces They continue to work jointly for the release of all personnel in penitentiary centers,” added the SNAI.
The detentions occurred at a time when the authorities were deploying operations in a Guayaquil prison in search of José Adolfo Macías 'Fito'considered one of the most dangerous criminal gangs in the country due to its alleged links with Mexican cartels, and which apparently escaped over the weekend.
The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, He said that on Sunday they entered the jail where 'Fito' was to transfer him to a maximum security prison, and “at that moment” we identified that the guy was not there, the guy left.
(Keep reading: 'Fito', the dangerous criminal who escaped from prison and caused chaos in Ecuador).
Reports from the SNAI – he said – showed that 'Fito' was in jail on Saturday night when the roll call was taken.
According to Noboa, “in the last two governments”, the prisoner “He entered and left like Pedro through his house in the Penitentiary.”
“The moment he finds out, through a leak of information, that we are going to move the heads of prisons that are not maximum security, and we are going to put them in isolated places, the guy leaves,” he said in a radio interview this Wednesday.Noboa assured that the Armed Forces are doing “everything possible to immediately recover the hostages.”
The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, decreed a state of emergency this Monday, after a series of riots in at least six prisons in the country.
EFE/ARMED FORCES OF ECUADOR
At the beginning of the week, videos circulated on social networks in which people dressed in prison officer uniforms were seen reading messages from the prisoners in which they asked the head of state, Daniel Noboa, to stop his control actions in the prisons.
There are several criminal gangs that internally control different prisons in Ecuador, where since 2020 more than 450 prisoners have been murdered in a series of massacres perpetrated in clashes between rival groups.
EFE
More news in EL TIEMPO
#confirm #officials #held #prisons #Ecuador
