Violence in Ecuador: another criminal leader escapes from prison after an emergency decree

Ecuador recorded the escape of another criminal leader from a prison in the midst of several acts of violenceincluding vehicle fires and explosions, perpetrated after the government decreed the day before a state of exception and curfew following the escape of a dangerous drug kingpin.

The Secretariat for the Care of Persons Deprived of Liberty confirmed in a statement on Tuesday the escape during the early hours of the morning from a prison in Riobamba, in the central Andean part of the country, of Fabricio Colón Pico, regional leader of the criminal gang Los Lobos and accused by Attorney General Diana Salazar of preparing an alleged attack on her life.

Colón Pico had been arrested only on Friday as part of an investigation for alleged kidnapping, according to the police.

On Monday, the president Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency throughout the country, including prisons, with a nighttime curfew, almost a day after his government confirmed the disappearance of organized crime boss Adolfo Macías, alias Fito, from a prison in the city ​​of Guayaquil.

Fito is the 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.

The emergency measure decreed by the government was followed at night and early in the morning by a series of acts of violence in the capital and other cities, as well as prison riots, including the escape of Colón Pico, and the kidnapping. of at least four police officers in separate events.

The explosion on a bridge and the fire of a vehicle with gas cylinders in a populated neighborhood south of Quito, as well as a motorcycle on fire in a satellite town of the capital of the Andean country, were reported on social networks and digital media. No injuries were reported in these events.

The police confirmed on their X account, formerly Twitter, that they arrested several citizens suspected of one of the explosions registered in the south of the capital. He said that a firearm and 16 blocks of explosives were found on the subjects.

The president of the National Court of Justice, Iván Saquicela, in an interview with local radio Democracia said on Tuesday that around midnight an explosion occurred near 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, the city where Colón Pico and an undetermined group of other inmates escaped, of which 12 have already been recaptured, according to the Secretariat for Attention to Private Persons of the Freedom.

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.

Given the violence unleashed, the mayor of Quito, Pabel Muñoz, through a statement demanded “all the protection of the State, the government and its security forces to safeguard the right to life” and called for the militarization of strategic areas of the capital.

Meanwhile, the governor of Azuay, Milton Benítez, in a press conference, pointed out that in the Turi prison in Cuenca, – 300 kilometers south of Quito – the inmates have taken over that prison and are holding 49 agents and 12 employees of the prison kitchen.

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? “At this moment, prisons are the specific focus of attention.”

For its part, the police confirmed on the social network of another member of that body in the country’s capital.

When declaring the state of emergency, President Noboa warned that he will not “to negotiate with terrorists” and that will not rest “until we return peace to all Ecuadorians.”