Ecuador Declares State of Emergency After Jailbreak by Nation’s Most Wanted Criminal

Soldiers patrol the perimeter of Inca prison during a state of emergency in Quito, Ecuador
Dolores Ochoa/AP
Christian K. Caruzo

The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, declared a 60-day nationwide state of exception and curfew on Monday in response to a new wave of gang violence that erupted following the disappearance of José Adolfo Macías, Ecuador’s “most-wanted criminal.”

Macías seemingly vanished from the prison housing him in Guayaquil over the weekend.

Macías, commonly known as “Fito,” is the leader of Los Choneros, one of the most dangerous gangs in Ecuador, with extensive ties to Mexican and Colombian drug cartels. Macías was serving a 34-year sentence that began in 2011 on organized crime, drug trafficking, and murder charges.

Macías was missing from his cell on Sunday just before he was scheduled to be transferred to a maximum security prison, automatically prompting the dispatching of 3,000 law enforcement agents to search for him throughout the Guayaquil regional prison system. Local authorities announced on Monday that they do not know Macías’s current whereabouts.

Sunday’s incident marks the second time Macías has escaped prison. In February 2013, the gang leader briefly escaped captivity until local authorities captured him again three months later.

Macías’ disappearance prompted riots in several of Ecuador’s prisons. Argentine news outlet Infobae reported on Monday that it had reviewed and confirmed footage of prison staff being subdued by inmates and being forced to deliver a statement to Noboa urging him to reconsider broad security measures he announced in the new year.

Videos circulating on social media show masked inmates holding prison security staff at gunpoint and threatening to kill them. The inmates proclaim themselves to be a “real mafia,” unlike El Salvador’s “stupid gangs.”

El Salvador’s once thriving violent gang environment has been largely subdued under President Nayib Bukele, who made the eradication of organized crime a priority of his first term. Noboa name-dropped Bukele in his announcement in the first week of the year of plans to build sprawling prison complexes for gang leaders in his country.

Ecuador’s President-elect Daniel Noboa arrives with his wife Lavinia Valbonesi and two children to the National Assembly to be sworn in as the new president in Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, November 23, 2023. (Carlos Noriega/AP)

Macías’s disappearance and the prison inmate riots prompted Noboa to declare a nationwide state of emergency on Monday evening, encompassing all of Ecuador’s territory.

Noboa, who took office in November, released a short video on his Instagram account announcing that the state of emergency decree will allow Ecuador’s police and military to intervene and gain control of the prisons. Noboa stressed in the short video that his government “will not negotiate with terrorists nor will we rest until we return peace to Ecuadorians.”

“I have just signed the State of Emergency decree so that the armed forces have all the political and legal support in their actions. I call on the citizens, since this is everyone’s fight, to also give them their support,” Noboa said.

“These narco-terrorist groups are trying to intimidate us and believe that we will give in to their demands. I have given clear and precise dispositions to the military and police commanders to intervene in the control of the prisons,” he continued.

The state of emergency imposes restrictions on freedom of movement and assembly, as well as implementing a six-hour curfew every day from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., with specific exceptions issued in the service of access to health care, conducting of law enforcement activities, emergency services, and freedom for government, media, and diplomatic officials stationed in the country.

Criminal gangs in the country responded to the decree with a wave of violence including reported cases of kidnapped police officers, burned vehicles, and the detonation of explosive devices.

Another apparent hostage video circulating on social media shows a police officer held at gunpoint. The officer implores President Noboa to “stop” the security measures. Gunshots are heard at the end of the video.

Local media reported on early Tuesday morning that another police kidnapping occurred in the city of Quevedo. The criminals managed to blow up the police vehicle after kidnapping the officers.

Ecuador’s armed forces published a series of videos on late Monday evening showing that joint task force operations had begun to patrol neighborhoods known for “high social conflict.”

Ecuador has faced an out-of-control increase in violence over recent years. The nation was declared the most violent country in Latin America in 2023, with a rate of violent death above 40 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Noboa, who successfully ran for president last year as an outsider candidate, is seeking to implement the “Phoenix Plan,” a broad list of security measures to reduce Ecuador’s rampant crime. The “Phoenix Plan” includes the construction of two mega-prisons inspired by the one built by Bukele in El Salvador in 2023.

Ecuador experienced the assassination of several politicians in 2023, including anti-socialist and anti-China journalist Fernando Villavicencio, a top presidential candidate. Villavicencio was assassinated in August as he was leaving a campaign rally.

Last year, conservative former President Guillermo Lasso declared a similar state of emergency in July after another violent wave of crime left several dead, including Agustín Intriago, the mayor of Manta, who was murdered as he carried out an inspection of sewage works in one of Manta’s neighborhoods.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.

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