Ecuador: new riot breaks out in the prison where drug trafficker ‘Fito’ escaped

A new prison riot broke out this Wednesday in Ecuador at the Regional Jail Guayaquilthe first since President Daniel Noboa managed to control the prison crisis experienced at the beginning of the year with the declaration of “internal armed conflict” and the subsequent militarization of prisons.

In videos posted on social media, it is possible to see a fire inside one of the pavilions, apparently due to the burning of mattresses, while some prisoners protest against the treatment given to soldiers in prisons.

LOOK HERE: Ecuador: Constitutional Court approves extension of the state of emergency decreed by Noboa

Although this mutiny has not yet been confirmed by the National Service for Comprehensive Care for Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the Municipal Transit Agency (ATM) Guayaquil He indicated that the road that passes in front of the prison is closed due to the police operation taking place nearby.

LAST MINUTE IN GUAYAQUIL
STRONG EXISTENCES IN THE REGIONAL PRISON pic.twitter.com/Y797aHdv1Y

– We News (@wenewsec) March 28, 2024

O Guayaquil Regional Prison has been one of the most intervened by Police and the Armed forces during the state of emergency decreed by the Government, with recurring operations to seize weapons and objectives prohibited to the prison population.

The drug trafficker escaped from this prison between the end of December and the beginning of January. José Adolfo Macías Villamar (‘Phyto‘), leader of the criminal gang The Choneroswho was serving a 34-year prison sentence for drug trafficking, illicit association It is murder.

Even before the start of the state of emergency Los Choneros, the largest and oldest criminal gang in the EcuadorThey controlled the interior of the prison, where they charged prisoners fees for the type of cell they used and also for food, among other elements of a wide extortion network, according to witnesses.

This prison establishment is part of the penitentiary complex in the coastal province of Guaiaswhose capital is Guayaquil, where there are five prisons in which approximately 12 thousand people are detained.

WE ARE TIRED… they say. They are the ones who generate terror in the streets and ask that their rights and what happens to the rights of their victims and the rest of Ecuadorians be respected. How could a riot occur in the Guayaquil regional prison? This needs to be explained. pic.twitter.com/rzmQOJbORm

—Ricardo Vanegas (@Ricardo_Vanegas) March 28, 2024

The Regional, officially named by Guayas Social Rehabilitation Center Number 4It is the second largest prison in Ecuador, with around 4,500 inmates inside, surpassed only by the adjacent prison Coastal Penitentiarywhich has approximately 5,500 prisoners inside.

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This new riot occurs less than two weeks after the 30-day extension of the state of emergency decreed by Noboa with the aim of combating organized crime groups, which he began to consider as terrorist groups and non-belligerent state actors.

This decision led to the sending of military personnel to prisons with the aim of wresting control of the prisons from the criminal gangs, who dominated many of the prison centers, where their rivalries have caused a series of massacres since 2020 in which more than 500 prisoners.

During the militarization of prisons, several organizations denounced human rights violations by the Armed Forces, an accusation that the military establishment has always categorically rejected, arguing that its actions respect legality and human rights.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.