Ecuador under state of emergency, curfew after narco boss escapes

Grab from a handout video released by Ecuador’s presidency press office showing Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa announcing a state of emergency for the entire country, including the prison system, following the escape of the leader of the largest drug gang from a prison in Guayaquil (southwest), in Quito, on January 8, 2024. The 60-day measure empowers Noboa to mobilize the military to take to the streets and enter penitentiaries on the grounds of a “grave internal commotion” in the nation, as well as suspend citizens’ rights. He also ordered a six-hour curfew between 23:00 and 05:00 local time (04:00 to 10:00 GMT). (Photo by Handout / Presidencia Ecuador / AFP)

Quito, Ecuador — Ecuador declared a state of emergency Monday after a dangerous narco boss escaped from maximum security detention and unrest broke out at several prisons in the violence-plagued country.

President Daniel Noboa, in office since November, announced a 60-day mobilization of soldiers in Ecuador’s streets and prisons as a manhunt was underway for gangster Jose Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito.”

There would also be a curfew from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. daily, the president said.

The state of emergency, Noboa said in a video on Instagram, would give members of the armed forces “all the political and legal support” they need to carry out their duties in a battle against what he described as “narcoterrorists.”

“We will not negotiate with terrorists nor rest until we return peace to all Ecuadorans,” said Noboa.

READ: Gang boss who threatened slain Ecuador candidate transferred to max security

On Sunday, the leader of the powerful Los Choneros gang was found missing by police conducting an inspection of a prison in the port city of Guayaquil.

The 44-year-old, who is said to have instilled terror in his fellow inmates, is believed to have escaped just hours before police arrived, according to presidency spokesman Roberto Izurieta. He was apparently tipped off.

“The full force of the state is being deployed to find this extremely dangerous individual,” Izurieta told domestic TV Monday.

He said the prison system had failed and bemoaned “the level of infiltration” by criminal groups.

The prosecutor’s office, meanwhile, said it had opened an investigation and filed charges against two prison officials “allegedly involved in the escape” of Fito.

Inmates remain on the roof of the Turi prison, where prison guards are held hostage, in Cuenca, Ecuador, on January 8, 2024. The leader of Ecuador’s prominent criminal gang, Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito”, is thought to have escaped on January 7 “hours before” an operation at the prison where he was serving his sentence, Communication Secretary General Roberto Izurieta said on Monday. Following the escape of the head of the Los Choneros drug gang, incidents were reported in several of the country’s prisons. (Photo by FERNANDO MACHADO / AFP)

‘He must be found’

The gang leader had been serving a 34-year sentence for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder since 2011.

This is his second prison escape — the last was in 2013, when he was recaptured after three months.

In an operation involving thousands of security forces, Fito was transferred to a maximum security prison last August following the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.

A week before his death, anti-cartel candidate Villavicencio said he had received threats from Fito.

Long a peaceful haven between top cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has seen violence explode in recent years as enemy gangs with links to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.

Gang wars largely play out in the country’s prisons, where criminal leaders such as Fito wield immense control.

The battles have left some 460 inmates dead since 2021, their bodies often found dismembered, decapitated or incinerated.

READ: Ecuadoran inmates release 57 guards and police: prison authorities

Izurieta said Fito — who studied law in prison — was a “criminal with extremely dangerous characteristics, whose activities have characteristics of terrorism.”

“The search continues… He will be found. He must be found,” said the spokesman.

After his flight, unrest broke out at penitentiaries in six of Ecuador’s 24 provinces Monday, according to the SNAI prison authority, with guards taken hostage at some of the facilities.

Heavily armed police and soldiers entered the prisons of El Oro, Loja, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, Azuay, and Pichincha, after which the military distributed images of half-naked inmates rounded up in courtyards.

The SNAI said there had been no injuries due to the “incidents.”

Other videos on social media, not verified by the authorities, purported to show hooded inmates threatening officials with knives as they pleaded for their lives.

Noboa came to power with promises to clamp down on gangs and insecurity.

On the campaign trail, he proposed creating a separate judicial system for the most serious crimes, militarizing the borders with Colombia and Peru, and jailing the most violent offenders on barges offshore.

Last week, he announced the construction of two new maximum security prisons similar to those built by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who has led a controversial crackdown on gangs credited with drastically reducing his country’s murder rate.