announced the president Ecuador Daniel Noboa – Monday – A state of emergency throughout the country, including prisons, after the escape of Jose Adolfo Macias, the most dangerous leader. Criminal gang In the country, he was imprisoned and riots and disobedience occurred in a number of prisons.
The president said – in a post on Instagram – “I have just signed the decree declaring a state of emergency to provide full political and legal support to the armed forces in their operations.”
The state of emergency allows the government to use the army to maintain public order throughout the country, including inside prisons.
The state of emergency was accompanied by the imposition of a nightly curfew from 23:00 until 05:00 local time.
An Ecuadorian government spokesman suggested – on Monday – that the leader of the influential Los Choneros gang had escaped from prison, the day after the authorities announced that they had lost track of Jose Adolfo Macias, nicknamed “Vito,” and launched a search for him.
Government spokesman Roberto Izurieta said that the “most likely” scenario is that Vito (44 years old) escaped hours before a police operation in the prison, and “the largest number of forces were deployed to find this very dangerous prisoner.”
Izurieta lamented the “level of proliferation” of criminal groups and the “failure” of Ecuador’s prison system.
Ecuador has witnessed violence in recent years as rival gangs linked to Mexican and Colombian gangs seek to extend their control.
