Ecuador: Military and police search massacre sites for weapons and regain control

Hundreds of military and police Ecuador This Thursday, for the second day in a row, they entered a prison in the port of Guayaquil (southwest), which has been the main scene of massacres among prisoners in the country, with more than 460 deaths since 2021, in search of prohibited objects, the Armed Forces reported.

The public force, which intervened on Wednesday with 1,700 agents carrying shotguns and supported by armored vehicles, entered the prison Guides 1the largest in a large penitentiary complex, to track weapons and explosives and maintain control of the establishment, the institution said in a statement.

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In that prison, where the biggest massacres were recorded due to clashes between prisoners linked to the drug trafficking who fight for power, those in uniform found on Wednesday five weapons, a grenade and some 4,200 bulletsaccording to a first balance.

Members of the Army entering the Litoral Penitentiary prison during an operation in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on November 8, 2023. (Disclosure Photo / Armed Forces of Ecuador / AFP) (DISCLOSURE/)

On Thursday, more than 400 projectiles of different calibers and almost 200 telecommunications radios and cell phones were found, according to a new report, which reports on the review of a small provisional detention center nearby.

Images shared by the Armed Forces showed dozens of prisoners in their underwear running from a building towards a courtyard to lie face down in front of uniformed police officers. “Lay down on the floor, lay down (…) Move, move…” ordered a police officer.

Before entering the cells, the agents, protected by shields, helmets and bulletproof vests, warned the prisoners through megaphones not to oppose the “to control”. “Otherwise, Armed forces It is National Police will carry out the legitimate and progressive use of force”.

Disarm criminal groups

Authorities reported no incidents in this new incursion by soldiers and police into Guayas 1, with capacity for 3,900 people and housing almost 5,700.

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There, on Monday, there were more clashes between prisoners, leaving two injured, the state body responsible for prisons (SNAI) reported at the time.

On Thursday, it specified in a statement that the clashes lasted until Tuesday, with the final balance of one person dead and 14 injured.

Without specifying the cause, the institution had also informed that on Wednesday “death occurred”from a leader of one of the criminal gangs in another prison that is part of the large penitentiary complex of Guayaquilwhich brings together five prisons with more than 12 thousand prisoners.

The president Guilherme Lasso said on Wednesday on the social network X, formerly Twitter, that his administration will “continue with these controls until the last day of the Government as a mechanism to confront corruption in the system and disarm criminal organizations operating within the centers”.

“The State must remain firm in its objective of controlling violence in prisons and on the streets” he added.

Violent Ecuadorian prisons have become centers of operations for organizations linked to Mexican and Colombian cartels. Clashes between criminal groups to take control of the business have left more than 460 prisoners dead since February 2021.

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The disputes extend to the streets, where dismembered bodies have been found hanging from bridges, in the style of Mexican drug traffickers. Between 2018 and 2022, homicides quadrupled, reaching a record of 26 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Between January and September this year the number of homicides was 33 per 100 thousand inhabitants, according to the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatoryfor which the rate will increase to a record 40 in 2023.

In two and a half years of Lasso’s government, Ecuador -located between Colombia It is Peruworld’s main producers of cocaine – seized 526 tons of drugs, most of which were destined for Europe It is U.S.

Source: Elcomercio