The Joint Command of the Armed Forces of Ecuador confirmed this Friday the escape of three prisoners from the Latacunga prison, which occurred this Thursday, a few hours before this prison under military control was shown to journalists as a successful example of its intervention in the prison system to wrest control of prisons from criminal gangs. The escape occurred during the early hours of February 22, as confirmed by the Joint Command in a statement issued this Friday.
On the morning of this 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 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 located about 70 kilometers south of Quito is officially known, the military explained that they have broken the extortion and coercion scheme carried out by the criminal structures they controlled. the pavilions.
According to the Armed Forces, prisoners in the Latacunga prison now have free access to three meals a day, water and a place to sleep, and they do not have to pay exorbitant amounts to the criminal leaders who controlled the prison internally.
Likewise, the military showed the disciplines and routines imposed on the prisoners to have physical activity and carry out the 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 parts 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 that 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.
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 Noboa, following 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.