The president of EcuadorDaniel Noboa, carried out supervision this Friday on the progress of the construction of a maximum security prison that is being built in the coastal province of Santa Elena (southwest), with a design similar to that implemented by his counterpart Nayib Bukele in El Salvador .
The prison, which will be called ‘El Encuentro Prison’ as announced by the Noboa Government this Friday, began its construction on June 21 and currently presents a physical progress of 12%, according to the General Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency. .
We seek to have a more advanced prison system, with the necessary isolation in maximum security for people deprived of their liberty” who pose a greater risk, Noboa stated during the tour.
The penitentiary center, designed to classify and isolate inmates according to their level of danger, is being built in an area of 37 hectares, with 14,000 square meters of buildings. In addition, it will be equipped with advanced security technology devices, according to the Ministry of Communication.
The Noboa Administration reported that video surveillance systems equipped with artificial intelligence technology will be installed in this penitentiary center to monitor the behavior of inmates in real time.
With the construction of this prison, the aim is to “give a break” to Ecuadorian society, which in recent years has witnessed an increase in violence in the country’s penitentiary centers, indicated the president.
“We are improving the (security) situation and the detention centers will no longer be centers of crime, but will serve to ensure that sentences are carried out and there is true rehabilitation” of the prisoners, highlighted the head of state.
He also thanked the population of the sector where the prison is being built “for being a fundamental part of this work” in which, according to him, nearly $54 million has been invested and is a strategic point of the Government’s security line.
The general director of the National Service for Comprehensive Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), the State penitentiary unit, Luis Zaldumbide, declared that this prison will be built in “record time”, since it is estimated that it will be ready in 300 days.
“For now the physical progress of the work is at 12%,” added the source after indicating that at the moment the pavilions, the platforms that will house the control towers and the reinforcement of walls for the walls, among other works, are being built. technicians.
This project is located in the ‘Puntas del Pacífico’ sector and will have, in parallel, a medical center, an ambulance will be acquired, a multi-use sports field will be built and an educational unit will be rebuilt, the official said.
Construction of a prison and promise of a second
According to figures provided by the Ecuadorian authorities, between 2021 and 2023, more than 500 prisoners were murdered in Ecuadorian prisons, many of them in a series of massacres between gangs that sought to displace their rivals to gain a foothold in internal control of the prisons.
Based on these numbers, at the beginning of his mandate, President Noboa had offered to build two prisons similar to those in El Salvador, such as the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), built by Bukele to lock up gang members, up to nearly 40,000, according to figures. officers.
At the moment one of these two prisons is under construction, and the date on which the works could begin, initially contemplated in the Amazonian province of Pastaza, is not yet known for the second.
The prison under construction will be significantly smaller in size than the famous Bukele prison, since according to official figures it is expected to have a capacity for 736 inmates.
(With information from EFE)
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2024-10-06 20:38:17