MADRID, 4 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, has assured this Thursday that he has kept his word to apply strict measures against the recent episodes of violence registered in the largest prison in the country by transferring hundreds of inmates.
“We said that our hands would not shake and it did not. We kept the strategy of transferring the leaders to the millimeter,” said the Ecuadorian president, evaluating the operations carried out in the last hours by the security forces to take control of the Litoral Prison, in Guayaquil, reported ‘El Universo’.
In an operation carried out by the National Police, the Army and the National Comprehensive Care Service for Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI), hundreds of prisoners have been subdued in the courtyards of the conflictive pavilion and some others had been transferred, according to the Ecuadorian Presidency in a statement.
“This government does not bow down to narco-terrorists: in this country they are not going to impose their will. We are here to confront them and protect the 18 million Ecuadorians who deserve to live in peace. God bless Ecuador!” Lasso pointed out. , as the aforementioned newspaper has collected.
A few hours earlier, after the meeting of the State and Public Security Council (Cosepe), the Secretary of Public Security, Diego Ordóñez, had reported that the Government’s decision was to “combat the threat of drug trafficking and organized crime and to recover the internal control of the prison centers”, after new incidents are registered in the Guayaquil prison.
During the operation, in which 700 policemen and 470 soldiers have participated, nine policemen and three soldiers have been injured. Hours earlier, two deaths and six inmates wounded had been recorded as part of a new confrontation at the Litoral Penitentiary.
On November 1, Guillermo Lasso decreed a state of emergency in the provinces of Guayas and Esmeraldas, thus allowing a curfew to be decreed and requesting the help of the Army in joint operations with the National Police.
For several days, Ecuador has been the scene of a series of violent acts in the provinces of Guayas and Esmeraldas, both in the north, which have resulted in at least five dead policemen and for which more than 50 suspects have already been arrested. .
