Ecuador’s president has declared a two-month-long emergency and ordered the country’s military to target gangs that have been designated as terrorists.
Violence in prisons and cities has gripped the country in fear. The military has been ordered to take on the powerful gangs believed to be behind the attacks.
Authorities moved the leader of one of Ecuador’s most powerful gangs into a maximum-security prison Saturday, three days after the assassination of a presidential candidate who had denounced threats from the feared criminal. President Guillermo Lasso said the relocation of Los Choneros leader Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito,” was meant “for the safety of citizens and detainees.” The gang boss was moved out of a jail with lighter security into a maximum-security prison in the same large complex of detention facilities in the port city of Guayaquil.