A Spanish priest has become a key figure in seeking pacification in Ecuador. José Antonio Maesowho is called the ‘gang priest’, has been working for years with younger boys to stop them from serving crime.

Maeso has spent 18 years in the Ecuadorian region with the highest crime rate, Esmeraldas, key for drug trafficking. In 2022, in Esmeraldas there were 81 violent deaths for every 100,000 inhabitants. “Sometimes you find the easy way to commit a crime to be able to get ahead as the only opportunity and sometimes you have generations of criminals: grandparents, parents and children…”, he tells laSexta.

In the latest violent outbreak, he has been the intermediary to free 13 of these prison officers that the gangs took hostage. “No conditions were setbut that human rights were respected,” he says.

The Burgos parish priest believes that the Ecuadorian government headed by Noboa should resort more to dialogue and less to force. “If we continue to polarize this conflict, we are going to end very badly. “He is facing people against people with a lot of hatred, with a lot of thirst for revenge,” she says.

A revenge that he tries to appease in the midst of the crowded prisons of Ecuador. A desperate attempt to bring peace to an area where the gangs prevail in a progress that seems like a utopia.