2024-01-09 18:38:40
Shortly after the president Daniel Noboa will decree the State of Exception throughout Ecuador due to the escape of the criminal Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito” from a prison in Guayaquil, acts of violence, including vehicle fires and explosions, kidnapping of four police officers and the escape of another criminal leader.
On social networks and digital media they reported the bridge explosion and vehicle fire with a gas tank in a popular neighborhood south of Quito, as well as a motorcycle on fire in another area of that capital, although no injuries were reported.
The police confirmed on their X account that they arrested two citizens suspected of one of the explosions registered in the south of Quito. He said they were found a firearm and 16 blocks of explosives.
The president of the National Court of Justice, Iván Saquicela, said in an interview with local radio Democracia that an explosion occurred at midnight meters from his house in Quito. “It could be a coincidence or not but It should be investigated because it happens in front of my home“, he claimed. The judge asked that his security be increased.
Several burned cars were also recorded in the cities of Esmeraldas and Riobamba, where the police also investigate a riot and a prisoner escape from the jail of that city. Among those who escaped was Fabricio Colón Pico, regional leader of the criminal gang Los Lobos, accused by Attorney General Diana Salazar of preparing an alleged attack on his life.
The armed forces control the streets of Quito. Photo: AP
The mayor of Riobamba, John Vinueza, in statements to Radio Pichincha, assured this Tuesday that after a riot in that prison, the escape of 39 prisoners, among them Colón Pico. He added that 12 inmates had been recaptured. The National Service for Comprehensive Attention to Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI) later confirmed the escape.
Rodrigo Cáceres, governor of the province of Chimborazo, whose capital is Riobamba — 160 kilometers south of Quito — declared to the digital media Diario de Riobamba that Colón Pico had to be relocated on Monday to another prison and that when that provision was going to be carried out, The incidents that ended in the escape occurred. However, no other authority, even from the penitentiary branch, confirmed these reports.
The decision of the Ecuadorian Government came after Adolfo Macías, alias Fito, disappeared from a prison in Guayaquil on Sunday. leader of one of the main organized crime groups, known as Los Choneros, with close ties to Mexico’s Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel, according to authorities. His whereabouts remain uncertain.
A vehicle burned in Ecuador. Photo: Reuters.
The Minister of the Interior, Mónica Palencia, said in a statement that the government is working “for the recovery of a state of peace” and that “at this moment prisons are the specific focus”, without mentioning the reports of the Colón Pico escape.
Meanwhile, the police confirmed on the social network another member of that body in the country’s capital.
These acts take place after President Daniel Noboa decreed a state of emergency throughout the country on Monday, including prisons, with a curfew at night, almost a day after his government confirmed the disappearance of alias Fito from a Guayaquil city jail.
Noboa warned that he is not going to “negotiate with terrorists” and that he will not rest “until he returns peace to all Ecuadorians.”
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