The Latin American Report # 162

Crisis continues in Ecuador

Adolfo Macías, alias "Fito", and Fabricio Colón Pico, leaders at different levels of the criminal organizations Los Choneros and Los Lobos, respectively, were still on the run at the time of writing. Their embarrassing escapes fed the spiral of violence that has taken hold in various parts of the country—leading the president first to declare a state of emergency and later the existence of an "internal armed conflict"—, although it has its epicenter in coastal cities like Guayaquil and Esmeraldas. As I said in the previous report, every minute they spend outside Ecuador's failing penitentiary system—the cradle of the crisis—represents a major break for the state apparatus and its effective power of representation, in its capacity to protect the citizenry.

Among the latest measures being considered by the Executive—beyond those aimed at managing the emergency—is the proposal to deport massively some 1,500 Colombian inmates, who, besides contributing to the penal overpopulation and its consequent and unstoppable dangerousness, also represent an expense that Noboa, hopefully not for merely propagandistic purposes, refers could be better employed in resources for education. Bogota has not refused the possibility of evaluating this issue, but disregarding—according to its interpretation of the law—the expeditious and "massive" character slipped from the Palace of Carondelet, sustaining that the review would be on a case-by-case basis. Regarding the confrontation with the criminal gangs pointed out as "terrorists" by the president, the military and police forces continue to obtain different results.

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Here I must highlight how people live with this social scourge daily, which becomes more perceptible when it is attacked with force and decision. I also insist on the sad image that Ecuadorian society exports when the faces that appear in practically all the news of individuals who are being detained amid the state of emergency are so young, including those who executed the temporal and surreal seizure of a television station in Guayas, which was the last straw that broke Noboa's "cup of patience" (I share below a photo with them, taken in the Guayaquil police model barracks).

With the disputed declaration of the existence of an "internal armed conflict", a constitutional expert explained to EFE that "the operations (of confrontation) will not be police, but of a military character, in which the National Police operates as an auxiliary force, that is to say, the roles are reversed". The purpose of the actions carried out by the forces of law and order is not to "locate and capture" but to "neutralize" the "military objectives"—the members of the criminal structures listed in the presidential decree and their logistical base—, with "(physical) elimination as an extreme factor". In any case, some analysts dispute Noboa's approach to the problem because it could lead to a deterioration in human rights, similar to what is being denounced regarding El Salvador. As of yesterday, more than 300 individuals had been captured, while some five were reported killed.

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The president, who is working against the clock—because of the crisis and the short time to show results for a potential second term—, announced today plans to build two maximum-security prisons. You can almost touch the tension in the country, with the families of around 180 agents and administrative personnel of the penitentiary system demanding concrete actions to free them. If you remember the last figure in this sense, you will realize that it has increased, in correspondence with the "contagion" of two more prisons with the "rebellion of the inmates" virus. Let this be well understood, because the Government could not tame those serving sentences in its penal facilities, which are indistinctly dominated by several of the criminal gangs pointed out by the Executive. This ability to throw the system into crisis has been latent at all times for at least the last three years.

"Tonight it will be five nights where we don't know anything about our husbands, sons, daughters", said the wife of a penitentiary agent held in a prison in the town of Latacunga, Cotopaxi state. "The authorities don't give any solution, they don't say anything," she said. The vice president of the prison workers union called attention to the seriousness of the situation. "We still don't know what the conditions are on the inside", he said. "No one goes in, no one comes out; we don't have exact information". The new prisons proposed by Noboa, where satellite and cell phone signals will be blocked, would have space for more than 700 prisoners, who will be distributed according to their level of danger (high-security, maximum-security, and super-maximum security), while the guards would have their faces covered seeking "anonymity". About 40 nations are assisting these efforts, with direct Israeli and potentially U.S. advice in the immediate future. We will continue to follow the situation in Ecuador closely. "Fito" and Colón Pico are still on the run, and with them an entire nation.

The quick regional roundup

• Three men were killed in the southern department of Putumayo, in what an NGO is calling Colombia's first massacre of 2024. According to reports, the deadly event occurred when armed men entered a pool hall and "attacked those who were there". According to Indepaz, the two factions that broke away from the defunct FARC-EP operate in the area where the event took place, along with local gangs, although no particular group is being blamed for the massacre. The battle for peace remains at a standstill in the coffee-growing nation, since although the Executive has managed to sign cease-fires with some organizations, they maintain hostilities among themselves, devastating several localities. Civilians and officials in the state of Chocó today demanded the release of two officials kidnapped last week.
  

• In Cuba, there is a tense debate about a battery of measures that the Government breaks down these days, with the increase in prices of basic services such as transportation maybe as the most controversial point. For example, the price of gasoline and diesel will increase fivefold as soon as February begins. In the interprovincial transportation service, starting in March, fares will reflect a 400% increase for buses, 600% for trains, and close to 470% in the case of aviation, taking certainly irrational values in the latter case for our context, as they were already high. The Cuban president said that the economy does not operate "according to the needs and desires of all", in a statement that does not say much in a country undergoing a "socialist transition".
  

• In the early hours of yesterday morning, a criminal group allegedly carried out a deadly attack on a division of the Mexican Army in the state of Nuevo Leon, bordering the United States. One soldier died and two others were wounded. A vehicle and a long weapon were seized at the scene, which were allegedly used by the perpetrators of the violent act, which has not been properly communicated by the competent authorities.
  

• At least six workers were "executed" this Thursday in a farm near the northern Paraguayan city of Pedro Juan Caballero, located in the troubled border that the nation shares with Brazil. There are active bilateral security protocols there, recently agreed to address this problem after the arrival of Santiago Peña to power, and which have had some results. The vilely executed workers were taken to a shed, where they were found face down, with "(between six and eight) gunshots in different parts of the body". Latin America in red.
  

And this is all for our report today. I have referenced the sources dynamically in the text, and remember you can learn how and where to follow the LATAM trail news by reading my work here. Have a nice day.