AMERICA/ECUADOR - Gangster boss manages to escape from prison: President declares a state of emergency

Quito (Agenzia Fides) - In Ecuador a state of emergency has been declared due to the escape of the country's "number 1 criminal". The measure was taken yesterday, January 8, by President Daniel Noboa after José Adolfo Macías Salazar, alias "Fito", was not found in his cell at the Guayaquil regional prison on Sunday the 7th.
"Fito", leader of the Los Choneros gang, was convicted of robbery, murder, drug trafficking and organized crime, for which he had been serving a 34-year sentence since 2011. From the prison where he was imprisoned, he continued to control drug trafficking and clashes with other groups linked to cartels in Mexico and Colombia. Local media report that the criminal boss had total control of the regional prison from where he escaped. More than three thousand police and military personnel are participating in the search operation for the fugitive in the Guayaquil regional prison alone, where he may still be hiding.
It is suspected that his escape occurred hours before the operation to transfer him to the La Roca maximum security prison. But according to former Interior Minister José Serrano, 'Fito' escaped on December 25, 2023, when he left prison for a medical consultation and never returned. His escape coincides with the start this week of the construction of two maximum security prisons in the provinces of Pastaza and Santa Elena. During his election campaign, newly elected President Daniel Noboa proposed building at least six new maximum security facilities, as well as chartering three ships to serve as offshore prisons to separate the most dangerous inmates during their construction. It would not be the first time that Fito, who graduated in Law while behind bars, escapes from prison. In 2013, he and other inmates managed to bypass the controls at the La Roca maximum security prison. After three months he was captured again. The new escape of Ecuador's most important criminal boss coincides with a wave of police kidnappings (at least four agents kidnapped in two different places) and some bomb attacks. Ecuador has become a battleground for criminal gangs vying for control of drug trafficking between neighboring Colombia and the United States and Europe. On August 9, during the presidential campaign, drug traffickers murdered candidate Fernando Villavicencio (see Fides, 10/8/2023). (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 9/1/2024)

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