MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

State of Emergency decreed in Ecuador amid simultaneous prison riots

The Armed Forces have all the political and legal support in their actions, Noboa said

Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa Monday decreed a state of emergency after riots erupted in at least six prisons nationwide, with inmates taking guards hostage and starting fires by burning mattresses. The measure allows the Armed Forces to intervene in support of law enforcement agencies.

“I have just signed the state of exception decree so that the Armed Forces have all the political and legal support in their actions,” Noboa said on Instagram. It was Noboa's first State of Exception since he took office on Nov. 23.

The crisis broke out when inmate Jose Adolfo “Fito” Macias Salazar, leader of Los Choneros, one of the most dangerous drug trafficking gangs, escaped from Regional 8 prison in Guayaquil. Macias Salazar has not yet been recaptured. He is said to have links with Mexican cartels.

 

 

 

 

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Una publicación compartida por Presidencia Ecuador (@presidenciaec)

According to Presidential Spokesman Roberto Izurieta, it was “a matter of hours” before mobilizing the guards in the prison on Sunday, when they discovered that the “inmate was not in his place.”

A group of prisoners burned mattresses in the yard of a prison in the province of Pichincha, which triggered the established security protocols. Police sources said inmates of a prison in Tena (Amazon) held guards hostage in protest against the alleged transfer of some prisoners.

From the prison where he has been held since last week, inmate Fabricio Colón Pico held the Government accountable for his integrity: “Today, January 8, I put this video on record, if something happens to me, if I am killed, I hold the president and [State Attorney General] Diana Salazar directly responsible because they are accusing me of something I have not done,” he stressed in a video that went viral. Colon Pico was detained due to an investigation for a kidnapping case months ago and was singled out by Salazar as being behind an alleged plan against her.