Ecuador security forces conduct raids as prison guards remain hostage By Reuters

By Alexandra Valencia

QUITO (Reuters) – Army and police operations occurred round Ecuador on Thursday in response to a wave of violence and the detention of almost 180 jail workers by inmates, with the federal government pledging to wage struggle on crime gangs they blame for the unrest.

The dramatic spike in violence this week – together with the on-air storming of a TV station, unexplained explosions in a wide range of cities, and the kidnapping of cops – seems to be a response to plans by new President Daniel Noboa to sort out a dire safety state of affairs.

Noboa has pledged, amongst different issues, to carry jailed gang leaders in new high-security prisons. The federal government is predicted to share particulars concerning the deliberate services on Thursday.

Noboa has declared a 60-day state of emergency, sending the army onto the streets and naming 22 gangs as terrorist teams, and mentioned on Wednesday U.S. support was anticipated inside days.

The 36-year-old son of a banana baron, who took workplace in November, is being supported by the often-fractious nationwide meeting, which voted unanimously late on Wednesday to again his safety efforts up to now.

There was little data launched by authorities on the standing of 158 jail guards and 20 administrative workers taken hostage since Monday in at the very least seven prisons.

“The state of affairs could be very worrying, we nonetheless do not know what the circumstances are on the within,” mentioned Carlos Ordonez, vice-president of the jail staff’ affiliation. “Nobody goes in, nobody comes out, we do not have actual data.”

Ordonez mentioned the army has taken over administration of the websites the place there are hostages.

Movies purporting to indicate jail workers being subjected to excessive violence, together with taking pictures and hanging, have circulated on social media, though armed forces commander Rear Admiral Jaime Vela mentioned on Wednesday no hostage had been killed.

Reuters couldn’t instantly confirm the movies.

“For now we perceive and hope that it is not our colleagues within the movies… We expect they’re all nonetheless alive,” mentioned Ordonez, including that his group has filed a habeas corpus petition to try to strain the federal government to do extra.

There are solely about 2,600 jail guards nationally to handle 32,000 prisoners, not together with youth detention facilities.

“We ask for the liberation of my colleagues after which for higher working circumstances,” Ordonez mentioned.

Prisons company SNAI mentioned in an announcement on Thursday there had been disturbances in a single day in two prisons and the escape of three inmates from one other.

Operations to liberate the hostages had been ongoing, it added.

ACTIVE OPERATIONS

Ecuador borders cocaine-producing Colombia and Peru and has turn into a significant drug cargo level. Whereas its neighbors stepped up controls on their frontiers this week, the army in Ecuador performed raids and weapons seizures across the nation.

Vela mentioned on Wednesday that 329 individuals, principally from gangs together with Los Choneros, Los Lobos and Los Tiguerones, had been detained because the president declared a state of emergency on Monday.

Cops have additionally been the goal of kidnappings. Police had reported 9 being held earlier this week nevertheless it was unclear what number of had been nonetheless captive as of Thursday.

Streets in Quito and Guayaquil remained quieter than common on Thursday, with faculty lessons going down just about and many individuals working from residence.

Pictures of gunmen taking up a TV studio at public broadcaster TC on Tuesday afternoon had been carried stay for about 20 minutes and made headlines around the globe.

Alina Manrique, a 39-year-old journalist who was amongst these held hostage, mentioned she had feared she was going to be killed and imagined by no means seeing her kids once more.

Being rescued by police after the gunmen surrendered was like “being reborn,” she mentioned.

“Their intention is obvious to me, for all of the world to see that they had been able to doing this at two within the afternoon, of assaulting a TV channel and placing 50 journalists, a metropolis, a rustic on their knees,” Manrique mentioned.

Manrique’s colleague Jose Luis Calderon instructed Reuters on Wednesday that the gunmen mentioned a number of instances they had been a part of La Firma, a gang related to Los Choneros, one of many gangs named as a terrorist group by Noboa.

The obvious escape of Los Choneros chief Adolfo Macias from jail over the weekend contributed to Noboa’s choice to declare the state of emergency.