The president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, decreed this Monday a state of exception, the first since he began his mandate on November 23, after a series of riots in at least six prisons in the country, which involved the retention of prison guards and the burning of mattresses.
The state of emergency allows the Armed Forces to act in support of the Police, to control internal security, especially in prisons, as they have done on previous occasions.
"I have just signed the state of emergency decree so that the Armed Forces have all the political and legal support for their actions," Noboa said in a message through Instagram.
So far, no injuries have been reported, nor any acts that violate security among inmates or prison staff.
Regarding the number of guards held in penitentiary centers, a source from the Communication Department of the National Service for Comprehensive Attention to Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI) said that over the course of the day they will update the information and requested " compression" in order to be able to take care of "the integrity of the servers.
The SNAI has not offered information on the causes of the incidents, but police sources indicated that inmates in a prison in Tena (Amazon) detained guides in protest against the alleged transfer of prisoners.
The incidents occur while the search continues for José Adolfo Macías Salazar, alias "Fito", leader of "Los Choneros", considered one of the most dangerous criminal gangs in the country for its alleged links with Mexican cartels, and who apparently escaped from a prison in the province of Guayas.
The Secretary General of Communication of the Presidency, Roberto Izurieta, stated that, with some 3,000 police and military personnel, the search operation continued this Monday inside the prison where Fito, a "criminal with extremely dangerous characteristics, with activities that have characteristics of terrorism".
Asked on Teleamazonas television if he knows when Fito apparently escaped, Izurieta commented that "most likely" information was leaked and that it was "a matter of hours" before starting an operation in the prison on Sunday, when they discovered that " prisoner was not in his place."
