Bombs, Kidnappings, and Jailbreaks: Ecuador Slides Into Chaos

Ecuador declared a national state of emergency as security forces attempted to contain widespread violence, including prison riots, bombings and the kidnapping of four police officers, after a major gang leader escaped from prison. 

President Daniel Noboa ordered the emergency measures in response to the escape of Jose Adolfo Macias, the leader of the powerful prison gang Los Choneros, which authorities believe controls much of the country’s prison system, cocaine trade and are suspected in last year’s assassination of a presidential candidate.

"I have just signed a decree for a state of emergency so that the armed forces have all the political and legal support in their actions against these narcoterrorists," Noboa said in a release. The state of emergency includes an 11pm to 5am curfew on the country’s streets.

Macia, known locally as “Fito,” disappeared from La Regional jail, where since 2011 he has been serving a decades-long sentence for murder, cocaine trafficking, and extortion while capably managing the Los Choneros. He vanished hours before prison authorities planned to transfer him to a maximum security prison as part of Noboa’s battle against local gangs and drug cartels. 

The attempted transfer and subsequent escape sparked chaos across the country as riots erupted in at least seven prisons controlled by Fito’s gang. Four police officers were kidnapped off the street and a series of bombs exploded across the country, alongside demands from the gang that all prison transfers be halted. 

Prison officials and guards were believed to be hostages in multiple locations across the country and unverified social media posts that appeared to be filmed inside the prisons showed multiple hostages begging for their lives.

Previously one of South America’s most peaceful nations, Ecuador has seen a massive increase in crime and violence, including the nation’s prison system being under effective control of gangs such as Los Choneros, over the past five years as international cocaine cartels began using its Pacific Ocean ports as transit routes for Colombian and Peruvian cocaine shipments to Europe and North America. Ecuador’s largest port, Guayaquil, serves as a major transit point for both markets.

Noboa, the son of a prominent banana growing dynasty, was elected in October on a platform of cracking down on gangs and cartels after the nation’s murder rate rose over 500 percent from 2016 to 2022. From 2021 to 2022 alone, the murder rate jumped an astonishing 82 percent. 

Macia was sentenced to more than 35 years in prison but, according to officials, has remained in control of Los Choneros from a fairly lavish prison cell as the group has battled a slew of other prison gangs and cartels for control of Ecuador's cocaine routes. 

Combatting cartel and prison gang violence became a key issue in last year’s presidential election and the issue escalated after candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated on August 9 while campaigning in Quito after allegedly being threatened by Fito.

Ecuador’s prison system is famously dominated by prison gangs that manage most of daily life and gang violence is rampant with brutal murders during prison riots as gangs fight for control of territory. 

On October 6, seven of the 13 people charged with Villavicencio’s assassination were murdered within hours in the country’s largest prison, deeply embarrassing Ecuador’s judicial system. 

Police officials globally have been concerned about Ecuador’s increasing role as a logistics hub because of weak law enforcement, deep water ports and proximity to the jungle cocaine laboratories located in neighbouring Peru and Colombia. 

According to a European police official who monitors cocaine shipments between South America and Europe’s northern ports of Belgium and Rotterdam – the most important cocaine entry points for Europe – Ecuador is in part a victim of its previous lack of cartel activities as well as its liberal visa requirements. 

“Serbian and Albanian cartels realised about a decade ago that they could source and ship cocaine from Ecuador to Europe with fewer local hassles because the police were weak, Albanians and criminals from the former Yugoslavia could travel visa free, and because it was considered neutral territory without a major cartel in control.”

In 2014, a prominent Albanian cartel boss, Dritan Rexhepi, was arrested in Ecuador while attempting to transport several tons of cocaine to Antwerp and sentenced to 13 years in prison that he was eventually allowed to serve under house arrest. During this period, police alleged Rexhepi not only continued to traffic cocaine from prison but built his cartel into one of Europe’s most powerful.

Sometime in late 2022, police are unsure of the exact date, Rexhepi cut off his ankle monitor and escaped. He was arrested last year in Istanbul.