Crime & Justice

Ecuador security forces continue operations in prisons, streets

Quito, Jan 14 (EFE).- Ecuador’s security forces on Sunday carried out operations in several prisons occupied by groups of mutinous prisoners, as well as patrols and searches in the streets as part of the State’s battle against organized crime groups.

After the successful freeing of 201 prison guards and administrators from seven prisons on Saturday, security forces focused Sunday on raiding prisons in search of weapons and other contraband.

With the use of tanks and armored vehicles, as well as controlled detonations in strategic locations, the military, police and prison officers entered the prisons.

Images were posted to social and other media of dozens of uniformed officers in cells, as well as the discovery of firearms, knives, appliances, money and illegal substances.

The Joint Command of the Armed Forces, in a review of the interventions in the prisons of the Andean city of Azogues, as well as in the coastal cities of Machala and Esmeraldas, revealed that it had found at least three Brazilian-made rifles, a handmade submachine gun, 13 pistols and revolvers, nearly 1,500 ammunition, six bulletproof vests, a grenade and a variety of knives.

Drugs, cash, about 130 mobile phones, video game consoles, watches, scales, a laptop and cash, all of which are prohibited in prisons, were also uncovered.

The State has regained control of the prisons in those three cities, the Joint Command said, although it did not give details about the situation in the others.

The National Comprehensive Care Service for Adults Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the country’s penitentiary agency, barely commented on the operations, saying that it will undertake investigations to determine the causes and those responsible for the prisoners’ occupation of several jails.

The security forces also announced that they will maintain operations against the organized crime groups that have generated the insecurity crisis in the country.

The government of President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency and “internal armed conflict” at the beginning of the week to stop the violence.

The state of emergency, which is expected to be in force until the beginning of March, includes a six-hour curfew between 11pm-5am, during which law enforcement patrol the cities.

In the executive decree that declared an internal armed conflict, the government identified at least 22 transnational organized crime groups operating in the country and classified them as “terrorist organizations and belligerent non-state actors.”

Among the gangs on the list were Águilas (Eagles), Águilas Killer (Killer Eagles), AK47, Caballeros Oscuros (Dark Knights), Chone Killer, Choneros, Covicheros, Cuartel de las Feas, Cubanos, Fatales, Gánster, Kater Piler, Lagartos, Latin Kings, Lobos (Wolves), Los p.27, Los Tiburones (Sharks), Mafia 18, Mafia Trébol, Patrones, R7 and Tiguerones.

According to experts, categorizing these groups as belligerents opens a legal door for the Armed Forces, together with the Police, to act with all their resources to neutralize them.

In a latest report, the Armed Forces announced that they have detained 1,327 people nationwide, 143 of them on charges of terrorism.

In the last six days, security forces have carried out a total of 12,974 operations, of which 32 have been directed against terrorist groups, and have killed five people linked to this type of organization.

The violence was unleashed a week ago, just after President Noboa announced that he was preparing to launch the “Phoenix Plan,” with the aim of regaining control of the prisons.

This violence has also spread to the streets to make Ecuador one of the most violent countries in the world with 45 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023. EFE

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