From a camp, where there is a command center, the soldiers try to react faster to disturbances in the Penitentiary

A 6 meter high wall and barbed wire is what separates the perimeter of the Litoral Penitentiary with the vegetation and the Daule River. That area was cleaned a few weeks ago and hundreds of handmade white weapons were found there, which are presumed to have been thrown by the inmates from the pavilions every time the police enter to carry out searches.

Now, the sector is guarded by the military who make constant rounds aboard tanks, cars, horses, on foot and even with drones. At the point, a space was even arranged as a heliport. The military have set up a camp.

It has more than 25 tents, there is a command center, bedrooms, bathrooms, dining rooms, kitchens and even a space to store weapons. The military have rifles and dozens of handguns, in addition to thousands of ammunition.

Colonel Richelieu Levoyer, head of the military camp, clarifies that although they cannot enter the pavilions – that is only allowed to police officers and prison guides – they are prepared to provide contingency to the uniformed in case of crisis.

The presence of the military outside the prisons has been going on for months, since one of the worst prison crises broke out last year, causing more than 300 deaths, in different violent acts attributed -by the Police- to a gang dispute.

When a shooting begins, the members of the Armed Forces must know who is inside, who must leave and in how long, before acting, that is why they are in constant communication with the National Police and with the Penitentiary Security Corps.

Before, when an alert was given in the prison, it took time for them to arrive from the military regiments due to the intense traffic that forms on the narrow road to Daule and that being there outside the prison, in the most recent shooting they were able to react in 5 minutes and a new massacre was avoided. There were no deaths or injuries last Wednesday.

The military chief maintains that there are about 300 men from the three branches of the Armed Forces at the scene. They guard 24 hours a day the outer perimeter of the most populous prison in the country, La Roca, the Women’s Prison and the Regional Prison. Between all the prison centers there are about 12,500 inmates.

Although there is an internet signal in the camp and you can talk on the phone, the soldiers specify that inside the Penitentiary the signal inhibitors are turned on and that they have even made several tours of the nearest town verifying that antennas are not installed.

In La Germania, a neighborhood neighboring the prison complex, there are houses that are about 60 meters from the pavilions. In fact, there are at least three houses that are built wall to wall with the prison compound.

From these houses the military say that they have removed internet antennas several times and that they reinstall them. “We have already notified the authorities of that, because it is not possible for them to live on the same block as the jail,” says Levoyer.

The colonel indicates that in that population, which does not have more than thirty houses, they carry out constant operations to see who enters and who leaves and if they see suspicious cars they stop them because they already know everyone who lives in the area and their activities.

Patrolling is also done on the river. There about twenty uniformed men travel all the time aboard two boats. They stop the canoes that circulate in the area –normally they are fishermen– and search the occupants. This has prevented the irregular activity that residents of nearby urbanizations reported last year.

Despite these controls, weapons continue to enter the Litoral Penitentiary. Last week a violent event was reported, after it was detected that a backpack was thrown through the wall into pavilion 2. The backpack was never recovered, because when the police approached they were met with bullets.

The Government has created a commission, with national and international experts, who are carrying out an evaluation of the situation of the prisons, an input that will serve to create strategies that allow Ecuador to get out of the prison crisis that has Ecuador in the world’s sights. (I)