Prisons in the hands of criminal gangs, streets subjected to the terror of weapons and governments cornered by the power of narcos: Ecuador, once a haven of peace, is once again on the brink of the abyss and declares itself in a “state of war “.
Less than two months after taking office, young President Daniel Noboa, 36, promised to tackle growing violence in the country linked to drug trafficking and engaged in open confrontation with criminal gangs. Mr. Noboa declared on Wednesday that the country was in a “state of war” after several days of violence perpetrated by members of criminal gangs whom he estimated at “more than 20,000” and described as “terrorists”.
The trigger
The escape, on Sunday, from the high security prison of Guayaquil, a large port in the southwest of the country, of the feared leader of the Choneros gang, Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”, is the starting point of this new episode of violence.
The 44-year-old drug trafficker, pictured with long, unkempt hair and a prominent beard during a recent prison transfer, had been serving a 34-year sentence since 2011 for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder.
He disappeared on the eve of a police operation of which he had obviously been informed beforehand. He had already escaped in 2013, but was recaptured after three months.
Two prison officials were arrested after this escape.
On Monday, President Noboa, elected in November on the promise of restoring security in the country, declared a state of emergency.
In another decree Tuesday, he ordered “the mobilization and intervention of the armed forces and the national police” to “guarantee national sovereignty and integrity against organized crime, terrorist organizations and non-state belligerents.”
Gang response
After the escape of “Fito”, several mutinies and hostage-taking of guards affected various prisons, relayed by frightening videos broadcast on social networks showing the captives threatened by the knives of masked inmates and the execution of at least least two guards by firearm and hanging.
In all, 125 prison guards and 14 administrative agents are being held hostage in at least five prisons, according to the prison administration, which communicates very little on the subject.
On Tuesday, Fabricio Colon Picole, leader of another powerful gang, that of the Lobos, also escaped.
Also on Tuesday, armed men burst onto the set of a public television in Guayaquil, taking journalists and employees of the channel hostage until the police intervened.
All the violence since the start of the crisis has left at least ten dead.
The gangs have alliances with foreign organizations, such as the Mexican Sinaloa cartel, and coordinate their operations from overcrowded prisons under the complicit gaze of guards.
Arm wrestling
Once a haven of peace in South America, the country is wracked by violence, with a murder rate of 46 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, the highest in its history.
Analysts believe that this “extreme” violence in the country has intensified under the government of conservative President Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023), who has engaged in a standoff against the criminal gangs behind attacks on the car bombing, shootings or kidnappings.
Each time these gangs attempted to intimidate Ecuadorians, President Lasso responded with force by placing the country in a state of emergency.
“What we have are three criminal organizations which no longer confront each other, but which confront the State, they have a common enemy”, underlines to Agence France-Presse César Carrion, researcher at the Faculty Latin American social sciences.
President Noboa, who emerged victorious from a presidential race in which one of the main candidates was assassinated, is on an even harder line than that of his predecessor.
He recently announced the construction of high-security prisons on boats and in the middle of the jungle, the strengthening of intelligence and border control, as well as the planned expulsion of more than a thousand foreign detainees.
The youngest president in Ecuador’s history promised an end to the era where criminals “dictated to the government what to do” and took steps to “take back control” of prisons.
“The iron fist is now being put in place explicitly and with great legitimacy on the part of the population because they are exhausted and can no longer take it,” analyzes César Carrion.