Ecuador’s President issues state of emergency

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency after a dangerous narco boss escaped from maximum security detention and unrest broke out at several prisons in the violence-plagued country.

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

There would also be a curfew from 11pm to 5am daily, the president said.

Mr Noboa said the state of emergency 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 Mr Noboa.

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.

“The full force of the state is being deployed to find this extremely dangerous individual,” Mr Izurieta said.

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.

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 Mr 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 in prisons have left some 460 inmates dead since 2021, their bodies often found dismembered, decapitated or incinerated.

Mr Izurieta said Fito was a “criminal with extremely dangerous characteristics, whose activities have characteristics of terrorism.”

Unrest broke out at penitentiaries in six of Ecuador’s 24 provinces yesterday, 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.

On the campaign trail, Mr Noboa 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.