Prisoners at a penitentiary in the city of Cuenca, in southern Ecuador, took 57 guards and police hostage, Interior Minister Juan Zapata said on Thursday (August 31st). They have been protesting since Wednesday against the transfer of detainees to other prisons.
Amid a day of violence caused by two car bombs in Quito, Zapata said seven of the detainees were police officers. “We are concerned for the safety of our officers”he said at a press conference in Quito.
On Wednesday, hundreds of soldiers and police carried out a search operation for weapons, ammunition and explosives in Latacunga prison, in the south of the country, one of the largest penitentiaries in the country. Clashes between gangs of prisoners are frequent. Some 430 inmates have died in Ecuador since 2021.
Emergency state
The hypotheses on the reasons for the hostage taking in Cuenca multiplied throughout the day, but the track of reprisals after the intervention of the armed forces in Latacunga was first put forward by the prison administration (SNAI) from the country. Later, the authorities indicated that the taking of hostages was a sign of protest against the transfer of prisoners to other penitentiaries.
Drug-trafficking groups are waging war for power in prisons, which have become centers of operations. Faced with this wave of violence between organizations linked to Mexican or Colombian cartels, President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency on July 24 throughout the prison system for sixty days. It allows in particular to deploy the army in the prisons.