Forty-one hostages held by inmates in Ecuadorian prisons have been freed, a Advertisement Saturday 13 January Ecuadorian Prison Administration (SNAI). One hundred and thirty-three guards and three officers have been taken hostage in the country’s prisons, according to a press release issued late in the evening.
An earlier bulletin reported that 155 guards and civil servants had been taken hostage in an unprecedented security crisis affecting the country due to drug-trafficking-related criminal gang violence.
The past twenty-four hours have been marked by fresh violence in prisons, which left at least one guard dead and another injured, according to SNAI. No “Armed Conflicts” occurred between security forces and prisoners, particularly at the Machala Penitentiary (Southwest) at dawn.
At least nineteen have died in the violence
The army and the police took over “Interventions to Restore Order and Normalcy” Prisons in six cities, such as Cuenca (in the south of the country), where inmates climbed onto the roof after gunshots were heard inside the facility. During the night, at least five inmates also escaped from the Guayaquil prison complex. According to SNAI, two were withdrawn.
Dreaded Choneros gang leader Adolfo Macias aka Guayaquil Penitentiary (Southwest), announced January 7 escape “fito”, sparked a wave of uprisings by taking hostages in at least five prisons, attacks against law enforcement and other acts aimed at sowing terror. According to the latest official report, at least nineteen people were killed.
The young president, Daniel Noboa, declared a state of emergency and ordered the military to neutralize the criminal gangs, which are now believed to be dead. “terrorists”. More than 22,400 troops have been deployed along with land, air and sea patrols. Searches and multiple operations were conducted in jails, while a curfew was imposed.
After a live attack on the studio of a public television channel in Guayaquil on Tuesday sent a wave of panic across the country, the situation has returned to relative normalcy.
