“We will not negotiate with terrorists”

(CNN Spanish) — Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, this Monday signed a state of emergency decree for the entire country, including prisons, citing “serious internal unrest” after several incidents, including the reported escape this Sunday of Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito.” Leader of Los Choneros, a criminal gang allegedly linked to drug trafficking.

The president argues that violence and crime have gotten worse recently, and are stronger in some of the country’s penitentiaries.

“The time is over in which drug traffickers, hitmen and organized crime convicts decided what to do with the government in power. What we are seeing in the country’s prisons is the result of their decision to confront them,” Noboa said in a message to the nation released this Monday. .

He pointed out that “narcoterrorist” groups wanted to intimidate his government, and he ordered police and military commanders to intervene in prison control.

“We are not going to negotiate with terrorists and we will not rest until we return peace to Ecuadorians,” he asserted.

The declaration of a state of emergency will be valid for 60 days and establishes the mobilization of police and armed forces to control disruptions to order.

“This declaration requires prompt and immediate intervention by state institutions to protect and guarantee security and integrity as well as other rights of citizens, public order, social peace and established order,” the text of the decree indicates. .

Curfew from this Monday

Emergency situations also include curfews to limit gatherings and actions that threaten public order.

It restricts freedom of movement from 11:00 pm to 5:00 am every day, with exceptions for the country’s production of basic services sectors, health care, neuralgic and strategic economic sectors, journalists, among others.

Fito’s escape heated up the prisons

Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, the leader of the feared Los Choneros drug cartel, better known by his alias “Fito,” escaped from prison in the coastal city of Guayaquil on Sunday, according to authorities. More than 3,000 police and members of the armed forces have been deployed to search for him, the government said.

Hours later, incidents were reported in at least six penal centers in different provinces, the Care Service for Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI) confirmed to the press.

“In light of these incidents, SNAI, together with the police and the armed forces, have activated the security protocols established for these cases and are working in coordination to restore normalcy in the deprivation of liberty centers,” the organization added.

Ecuador’s prosecutor’s office launched an ex officio investigation after Fitona, the leader of Ecuador’s most feared Los Choneros gang, involved in maritime drug trafficking to Mexico and the United States in coordination with the Sinaloa cartel. Oliver Sinistera Front in Mexico and Colombia, according to Insight Crime Research Center.

Ecuador, home to the Galapagos Islands and a tourism-friendly dollar economy, was once known as the “island of peace,” nestled between two of the world’s largest cocaine producers, Peru and Colombia.

But Ecuador’s deep seaports make it a major transit point for cocaine to reach consumers in the United States and Europe. And its dollarized economy also makes it a strategic location for traffickers looking to launder money.

Fito was sentenced to 34 years in prison in 2011 for crimes including drug trafficking and murder, according to Reuters.

Analysts previously told CNN that Ecuadorian gangs like the Choneros are working with foreign syndicates, including Mexican cartels, Brazilian urban gangs and Albanian mafia cells, fueling the ongoing conflict in the country.

Authorities have accused Chonero of controlling Ecuador’s main prisons, which have long been the main theater of violence in the country. Security forces have struggled to combat gangs inside overcrowded prisons, where inmates often take control of penitentiary branches and run criminal networks behind bars, according to authorities.

— with information from Michael Rios and CNN’s Chris Lau.