A little more than a month after beginning operations, Joint Task Force (JTF) Esmeraldas, tasked with combating and reducing insecurity in the Ecuadorian province of the same name, on the border with Colombia, has been showing positive results.
Thousands of people on Wednesday flooded the Ecuadoran capital, Quito, for a 10th day of demonstrations over living costs.
The government rejected protesters’ demands to lift a state of emergency in six of the country’s 24 provinces and said that 18 officers were missing following an attack by protesters on a police station in the Amazonian city of Puyo.
The capital has been semi-paralyzed since Monday, with the arrival of about 10,000 protesters from across the country who have been taking to the streets daily with demands for fuel price cuts and other social aid amid growing economic hardship.
Protesters burned tires and
At least 44 inmates on Monday died in Ecuador’s latest prison riot, the public prosecutor said, as another 100 prisoners managed to escape.
Authorities said that a fight broke out between the rival Los Lobos and R7 gangs inside the Bellavista Prison in Santo Domingo de los Colorados, about 80km from the capital, Quito.
During the riot, dozens of inmates tried to escape, with Police Chief Fausto Salinas telling reporters that 108 remained missing after another 112 escaped prisoners were recaptured.
The South American country’s prison authority, SNAI, said that it has activated security protocols to contain the “disturbances to order.”
Six gang leaders