The contract for the first two prisons will be signed next week, but there will also be a ‘third’, said Minister Mónica Palencia, although she did not reveal where.
Referential image of an Armed Forces operation in the Imbabura prison, on December 20, 2023.
One of the security promises of Daniel Noboa’s government is the construction of two new prisons. On one of these structures, located in Pastaza, it had been announced that the first stone would be laid on January 11, and the announcement had generated more doubts than certainties.
This January 4, 2024, the President clarified that rather next week the contract will be signed to lay the first stone of the Pastaza prison and a second one in Santa Elena.
“The contract is ready and the prisons will be ready in 10 months, this is part of the Fénix plan,” Noboa said in a radio link with several media in Guayaquil.
According to Noboa, the other prison will be located in the rural Julio Moreno parish, in Santa Elena, because the objective is for the rehabilitation centers “to be in the areas with the least influence of narcoterrorist groups.”
They will be located between 20 and 30 minutes away by vehicle from the town, Noboa indicated, because if they are located too far away, there will be problems supplying them.
But there will be a third prison in 2024, according to Government Minister Mónica Palencia, before entering the Cosepe meeting in Guayaquil, and financing is already being sought to build it, although she did not mention where it will be.
The status, phases and documentation of these projects must be published on the website of the contracting institution, according to the regulations and authorizations of the National Contracting Service, but at the moment there are no such documents.
‘Equals’ to Mexico and El Salvador
The President recalled that the new prisons will be “equal” to those in Mexico and El Salvador, since they will be built by the same company used by the governments of these countries.
“For all the Bukelelovers, it is an equal prison. If they want to go, walk around, get to know it, stay one night, commit a crime,” said Noboa, referring to the Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele.
Despite criticism for the treatment of some prisoners and opponents, Bukele’s security policies represent a reference for several politicians in the region.
According to figures from the Bukele government, the country closed 2023 with the lowest homicide rate in Latin America.
While in Ecuador, in recent years, prisons have been the scene of massacres between inmates who dispute control of the centers, and who, according to the authorities, transferred these disputes to the territory in events related to drug trafficking and transnational crime.
