Las Ecuadorian Armed Forces confirmed this Friday the escape of three prisoners from the Latacunga prisona few hours before this prison, under military control, was shown to journalists as a successful example of their intervention in the prison system to wrest control of the penitentiary centers from criminal gangs.
The escape occurred during the early hours of this Thursdayas confirmed by the Joint Command of the Armed Forces of Ecuador in a statement issued this Friday.
On the morning of that same Thursday, the Government and the Armed Forces allowed the entry of a group of journalists from national and international media, including EFE, to show “the resounding change” that had occurred inside the prison since the military entered it in mid-January within the framework of the “internal armed conflict” decreed against organized crime.
During the visit to the Cotopaxi Number 1 Deprivation of Liberty Center, as this prison is officially known, located about 70 kilometers south of Quito, the military explained that have broken the scheme of extortion and coercion exercised by the criminal structures that controlled the pavilions.
According to the Armed Forces, Now the inmates of the Latacunga prison have free access to three meals a day, water and a place to sleepand they should not pay exorbitant amounts to the criminal leaders who internally controlled the prison.
Prisoners shout for help
Likewise, the military They showed the disciplines and routines imposed on prisoners to have physical activity and carry out cleaning and maintenance of the prison..
However, upon seeing the journalists, Some prisoners demanded to leave since they claimed to have served their sentence and others demanded that they also be provided with water and toilet paper..
Some points of the prison exhibited traces of the violence that has been experienced inside, since the Latacunga prison, in the Andean province of Cotopaxi, has been one of the scenes of prison massacres between rival gangs where more than 450 prisoners have been killed since 2020.
In one of these massacres that occurred in 2022, the alleged drug trafficker and money launderer Leandro Norero was murdered, whose analysis of his telephone conversations led to the Metastasis case, which uncovered an alleged plot of judicial, police and prison corruption to benefit the criminal structure of Norero.
The Latacunga prison is the third largest in Ecuador and currently houses more than 4,300 inmates, in maximum, medium and minimum security pavilions, as well as another reserved for women.
Search
After learning of the escape of these three prisoners, the Joint Command of the Armed Forces indicated that in coordination with the National Police and the National Service for Comprehensive Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the State penitentiary agency, it activated the protocols. investigation and search for escaped prisoners.
Since the beginning of the “internal armed conflict” declared against organized crime, prisons have become one of the main focuses of action of the Armed Forces to disarm criminal gangs, which housed large arsenals of weapons such as rifles, grenades and guns in all kinds of hiding places.
The state of emergency was declared by the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboafollowing a wave of violence by organized crime, where an armed group took over a television channel during a live broadcast and simultaneous riots in several prisons, including the Latacunga prison.
In those riots there were 200 hostages, including police and prison guards, who managed to be freed, while at least 90 prisoners managed to escape, most of them from the Esmeraldas and Riobamba prisons.
Fabricio Colón Pico, alleged leader of the criminal gang Los Lobos, escaped from the Riobamba prison, while before the outbreak of violence José Adolfo Macías Villamar (‘Fito’), the leader of the Guayaquil Regional Prison, did the same. Los Choneros gang, who was serving a 34-year prison sentence for drug trafficking, homicide and organized crime. EFE
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