The German public channel, DW, publishes an extensive report on the prison crisis in Ecuador, and ensures that the authorities can do little to stop violence in prisons.
Prisoners take over the roofs of the Turi prison, in Cuenca, on August 30, 2023.
Citing two security experts from Ecuador, the German outlet Deutsche Welle (DW) describes Ecuador’s prisons as the “epicenter of organized crime,” in a report published on September 4.
“Criminal structures use prisons as operations centers to organize themselves,” the outlet points out.
In the report, DW gives an example of the hostage crisis that the Turi Prison experienced, in Cuenca, where 50 guides and seven police officers were held for more than a day.
“Ecuador, a country that was previously considered calm, has been suffering an escalation of violence for several years, particularly due to the presence of criminal gangs allied with Mexican and Colombian cartels,” the newspaper report added.
In addition, the publication recounts the main riots in prisons, highlighting what happened in February 2021, when four prisons in three provinces staged excesses.
Regarding the arrival of a new government in the country, after the presidential runoff scheduled for October 2023, the cited experts are not optimistic.
The professor of the Institute of Higher National Studies (IAEN), Daniel Pontón, said that whoever is elected President will only rule for a year and a half, so he will not have the option to make changes.
“Ecuador cannot face crime with the norms or institutional frameworks that we have. A series of institutional transformations must be made, which I do not see on the agenda,” said Pontón.
It is not the first time that the foreign press has referred to the security crisis that Ecuador is experiencing, and recently even a former Israeli intelligence agent, Udy Levy, pointed out that narco-terrorism moved to the country.
