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Prison guards and staff taken hostage by inmates across Ecuador have been freed, the country’s government said after a crackdown on gang violence as part of its “war” against drug traffickers.
All 158 guards and 20 administrative staff were released late on Saturday night and were undergoing medical checks, the country’s prison agency said in a statement, after being held hostage in seven jails across Ecuador since Monday.
President Daniel Noboa thanked prison staff, the police and the armed forces for their role in securing the liberation of hostages, but did not provide further details.
The government has launched investigations “to determine the cause and perpetrators of these events”, the prison agency said.
The army posted images on X on Sunday morning showing the prison in El Oro where some hostages had been held back under control, with shirtless inmates handcuffed with cable ties guarded by armed soldiers.
Harrowing videos had been circulating on social media of hostages pleading for their lives amid a squall of violence carried out by powerful gangs in the small and once-peaceful nation of 18mn people.
Police officers and soldiers have been carrying out nightly raids on gang-controlled neighbourhoods around the country, with about 1,000 people arrested since Monday, after gangsters raided a TV news studio live on air and bombings and jailbreaks took place across the country.
“In practical terms we are living through a war against terrorism,” Noboa said in an interview with Telemundo on Friday evening. “It’s not that we’re on some murderous manhunt, not at all, but we are at war and what we are fighting against is highly armed, organised, and nationally and internationally financed.”
Violence in Ecuador has surged in recent years as rival drug gangs battle for control of lucrative smuggling routes. Last year was the bloodiest on record with 7,886 murders, according to the police.
The country’s overcrowded prisons have often served as bases of operations for gangs, but the violence escalated following the disappearance of jailed drug-lord Adolfo Macías, the leader of the feared Los Choneros gang, from his prison cell on the outskirts of the city of Guayaquil on Sunday.
In the aftermath, riots and jailbreaks took place at prisons across the country, while cars and buildings were set ablaze. A gang leader of the rival Los Lobos group also escaped prison in the mayhem.
More than 15 people, including police officers, have been killed in the unrest, according to authorities. Noboa has declared a two-month state of emergency with nightly curfews.
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