2024-01-08 23:47:08
The authorities of Ecuador continued today with the search for José Adolfo Macías, alias Fito, leader of one of the main criminal gangs in the country, Los Chonerosimprisoned in the city of Guayaquil and apparently escaped, which led to the President Daniel Noboa to decree a state of emergency for two months “due to serious internal commotion”.
Decree 110 of Noboa establishes a state of emergency “throughout the national territory due to serious internal commotion, i“including centers of deprivation of liberty”, includes a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 p.m. throughout the country and orders the mobilization of the Armed Forces and their entry into prisons, “to maintain public order and the safety of those deprived of liberty and of visitors and officials of the penitentiary system.”
Macías had threatened to kill the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio a few days before the candidate’s murder.on August 9, the Police reported.
After the authorities acknowledged that they did not find Fito in the Guayaquil regional prison, which suggests that he escaped, a fire and riot were reported in the El Inca prison, in Quito, and in the Turi prison, in Cuenca, and other incidents in the Ambato and Riobamba prisons.
Las authorities, faced with the risk that the riots would spread, reinforced security and the police presence outside two other centers, those of Latacunga and Machala.
The Secretary of Communication, Roberto Izurieta, explained in an interview with Teleamazonas that it was suspected that the Macías’ alleged escape would have occurred hours before the operation to transfer him to La Roca maximum security prisonlocated on the outskirts of Guayaquil, which was supposed to be secret.
“Most likely, information was leaked,” said Izurieta, who added that the search for Macías continued and assured that “that criminal will be found.”
The prosecution reported through the social network charges once morest two prison officials “who would be involved in the escape” of the criminal bossaccording to the AFP agency.
Ayer, Hundreds of uniformed officers entered a prison complex in the port, without initially knowing the reason for that operation, but at night the State Prosecutor’s Office admitted that they were unable to find Fito’s whereregardings, according to the local newspaper Primicias.
Who is José Adolfo Macías, alias Issue
Imprisoned since 2011, Macías pays a 34-year sentence for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder.
Independent research points to the role key of Los Choneros in cocaine trafficking and drug export from Pacific ports.
For his command over thousands of men, Fito is considered one of the most dangerous criminals in Ecuador, plagued by drug violence in the presence of foreign cartels.
The authorities do not rule out that it might be hidden in the same Guayaquil prison complex.
It is believed that Macías, 44 years old and a lawyer by professioncontinues to lead Los Choneros from prison and, like other criminal leaders, enjoys privileges behind closed doors.
The last time he was seen was last September, days following Villavicencio’s murder.
Fito was transferred from prison just following the assassination, since Villavicencio had reported death threats from him.
He then appeared in photographs obese, with long hair and a prominent beard. Thousands of uniformed officers guarded it, in one of the largest military and police operations carried out there by then-president Guillermo Lasso (2021-23).
The drug gangs that plague Ecuador
Los Choneros, Los Lobos and Los Tiguerones are some of the largest illegal gangs in Ecuadorthat in addition to fighting over the big cities, they fight for control of the prisons.
He Noboa’s decree declares a “safety zone” for the prisons and “the 1 km perimeter around them.”so that the Police and the Armed Forces carry out controls and establish road closures”, and restricts the rights of freedom of assembly and inviolability of home, “in strict relation to the reasons for the state of emergency.”
In his message, uploaded to social networks, the president warned that The time is over when organized crime “dictated the government in power what to do”attributed the lack of control in the detention centers to “the result of the decision to confront them” and called on the police to show support for those in uniform.
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