Less than two months after taking the reins of Ecuador, President Daniel Noboa, It was decided this Monday exception status due to the combination of two events that took control of the security policy. On the one hand, the escape of that country’s most powerful drug trafficker, José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias ‘Fito’, leader of Los Choneros. It is also a series riots in at least six prisons, by detaining the guards and burning the beds. At the Turi center in Cuenca, some prisoners went to the rooftops, destroyed the cameras and demanded that they not be transferred to another prison. According to the newspaper ‘El Universo’, videos recorded in all prisons follow the same pattern: guards read a message and behind them hooded prisoners display “knives and machetes”.
“We will not negotiate with terrorists The measure taken by his predecessor Guillermo Lasso on several occasions allows him to order the intervention of the Armed Forces, the president said in a video lasting just over a minute. In support of the police, especially to control internal security in prisons.
“I have just signed the emergency decree to ensure that the Armed Forces receive all political and legal support for their actions,” he said on Instagram. “These narcoterrorist groups They are trying to scare us and believe that we will comply with their demands.. “I gave clear and definitive orders to military and police commanders to intervene in the control of prisons.”
Curfew and military mobilization
The state of emergency, a measure mandated for 60 days, gives Noboa, who took office for a year and a half in November after being elected in early elections, the authority to bring the army into the streets and enter prisons, citing “serious unrest”. Suspension of citizens’ rights as well as being “internal” within the nation. A six-hour curfew is also ordered locally between 23:00 and 05:00 (04:00 – 10:00 GMT).
The escape of the nickname ‘Fito’ caused a real shock in the Carondelet Palace. Ecuadorian Government Communications Minister Roberto Izurieta told the Teleamazonas channel on Monday that “most likely” there were “infiltrations” regarding an upcoming security operation at the prison and that Fito escaped “hours ago”.
The Ecuadorian prosecutor’s office filed a criminal complaint against two prison officials who would be “involved in the escape” of Macías. Los Choneros is Ecuador’s most feared gang and has been involved in bloody disputes over drug trafficking routes with other criminal groups with links to cartels in Mexico and Colombia. Noboa wins elections on promise to implement new policy to eliminate violence The Choneros, who traffic drugs in and out of prisons, are not only considered the operational arm of the Sinaloa Cartel in Ecuador. In addition to drug trafficking, they are also engaged in robbery, hitman and extortion. In just a few years this country has become the most violent country in the region.
The security crisis is reflected in horrific figures: 40 violent deaths per 100,000 people. In the Nueva Prosperina neighborhood south of Guayaquil, capital of the coastal state of Guayas, where Los Choneros and other groups are fighting with bullets for territory, the rate reaches 114 per 100,000 people. This is one of the highest rates on the planet.
The young president criticized the opposition and said there was no room for profit-seeking politicians given the circumstances.
Source: Informacion
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