The military take over Ecuador's prisons after Lasso decreed the state of emergency
The latest massacre in the Guayaquil prison, with at least 31 inmates murdered, has led to the intervention of the government of Guillermo Lasso. The president decreed a state of emergency in the prisons, which gave rise to the military and police breaking into the prisons to take them over.
“The forces of order take control of the detention centers. We must unite more than ever to combat the threats facing the State. They will have strong responses from the Police and the Armed Forces,” said Juan Zapata, Minister of the Interior.
Lasso's collaborator provided the country with videos and images very similar to those that made Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele famous this year: hundreds of prisoners with their hands tied, some face down on the ground and others sitting or kneeling, surrounded by police or military agents. armed to the teeth. Almost 3,000 agents entered the prison in the capital of Guayas.
The Prosecutor's Office reported that after the military intervention in the Guayaquil Litoral Penitentiary, the “removal of corpses and the collection of evidence” has been carried out.. The agents found a veritable arsenal in the cells, made up of rifles, pistols, grenade launchers, knives and razors.
Weapons seized during an intervention in the Litoral penitentiary. Beloved Forces/EFE
The conflict between different criminal gangs associated with drug trafficking began last Saturday and lasted until early Tuesday morning.. A ruthless battle that since last year has cost the lives of more than 400 prisoners in the midst of unsuspected violence: hangings, severed heads, hitmen inside and outside not only against prisoners, but also against officials.
“The coercive force will never bend,” the president harangued after the intervention. Prisons had become operations centers for organized crime, where everything began in the fight against the State. The extortion against the government even led to the kidnapping of more than a hundred prison guides in recent days, who were finally released.
The government action immediately provoked the reaction of organized gangs in different parts of the country, especially in the coastal area of Esmeraldas, another of the areas plagued by drug trafficking.. The public force managed to deactivate the explosive devices placed in the Prosecutor's Office and freed several kidnapped by the thugs, who opened fire and detonated explosives in the center of the city. They also set fire to buses and cars.