Guayaquil prison inmates riot due to the presence of the military in the center

A new prison riot has left part of the penitentiary center of the Guayaquil regional prison on fire, in Ecuador, on Wednesday night. In the videos, the detainees, with their faces covered with their t-shirts, demand that the president, Daniel Noboawho receive mistreatment from the military.

And this time, the mutiny faced by the Ecuadorian Government is not due to a dispute between gangs, but rather due to a protest against the State.

Ecuador’s prisons have been militarized since January 8, when the Noboa Government faced its first mutiny in seven prisons in the country simultaneously. To control the violence in the penitentiaries and on the streets, the president decreed a state of exception and an internal armed conflict, with which he managed to allow the military to enter the pavilions, carry out operations and have control of the prison. This shock measure has managed to reduce homicides by 50%, which has boosted Noboa’s popularity, which exceeds 80%.

These new clashes occurred a few days before the end of the state of emergency, which was extended for 30 days on March 7.

Under the state of emergency, the Armed Forces have carried out more than 200,000 control operations in the country in search of what they call terrorists or, in other words, gang members. The same model that Nayib Bukele applied in El Salvador is being followed to end the gangs.

During this extraordinary period, 16,459 people have been detained, 280 of them for terrorism, according to the military. In the 79 days of exception, the uniformed officers have confiscated weapons, mobile phones, drugs, money and other prohibited objects from the prisons that have been brought in due to the corruption of the institutions in charge of the prisons.

The regional prison, where 4,500 people are held, is led by the Los Choneros criminal gang, one of the most dangerous in the country. Adolfo Macías, alias Fito, the leader of this criminal organization, escaped from this center. The authorities realized his absence when they went in to carry out an operation to control objects in the cells, which were always under the control of the prisoners and not the State.

“I appreciate the bravery of the security bloc that, in a professional, urgent and large-scale operation deployed by law enforcement, neutralized the revolt before a possible escalation. This is an unprecedented event in the country. We cannot go back to Old Ecuador. Our commitment is to deliver the democratic mechanisms necessary to restore peace and guarantee the continuity of this fight,” Noboa said in a publication on the social network X, formerly Twitter.