QUITO, Ecuador: At least four police officers were kidnapped in Ecuador following a declaration of a state of emergency on Monday after a dangerous narco boss escaped from maximum security detention. President Daniel Noboa announced the 60-day state of emergency as a manhunt was under way for the gang leader Jose Adolfo Macias, known as “Fito.” The announcement triggered the mobilization of soldiers on streets and in prisons, as well as a nightly curfew from 11:00 pm to 05:00 am.

In the coastal city of Machala “three police officers, who were on duty at the scene, were kidnapped”, while a fourth officer was kidnapped in the capital Quito, Ecuador’s police force said on X.

Three people driving a vehicle “without license plates” abducted the officer in Quito, according to the police statement. In a video posted on Instagram, Noboa said the state of emergency would allow armed forces to enter and help control prisons. “We will not negotiate with terrorists nor rest until we return peace to all Ecuadorans,” he said.

Noboa came to power with promises to clamp down on gangs and insecurity. He announced last week that he will build two maximum security prisons — similar to the one built by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele during his war against gangs—to hold the most dangerous criminals.

Prison break

Macias had been serving a 34-year sentence for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder. The 44-year-old leader of the powerful Los Choneros gang was found missing by police conducting an inspection of the prison in the port city of Guayaquil. He is believed to have been tipped off and escaped just hours before police arrived, according to presidential spokesman Roberto Izurieta.

The Attorney General’s office filed charges against two prison officials it accuses of being involved in Macias’ escape. This is his second prison break — the last was in 2013 when he was recaptured after three months.

After his escape on Sunday, unrest broke out at penitentiaries in six of Ecuador’s 24 provinces, according to Ecuador’s prison authority SNAI, with guards taken hostage at some of the facilities. Heavily armed police and soldiers entered the prisons of El Oro, Loja, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, Azuay and Pichincha, after which the military distributed images of half-naked inmates rounded up in courtyards. The SNAI said there had been no injuries due to the incidents.

Violence

Long a peaceful haven between top cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has seen violence explode in recent years as enemy gangs with links to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control. The kidnapping of police officers on Monday night was compounded by explosions in the coastal town of Esmeraldas, in a region controlled by gangs.

Police say an explosive device was thrown near a police station and two vehicles were burned in other areas, with no people killed. In Quito, a car was reportedly blown up, and a device exploded near a pedestrian bridge.

Located in the middle of Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest cocaine producers, Ecuador is bleeding from the war for power between drug trafficking organizations. The year 2023 closed with more than 7,800 homicides and 220 tons of drugs seized, a new record for the nation. Since February 2021, clashes between prisoners have left more than 460 dead. Between 2018 and 2023, homicides grew by almost 800 percent going from 6 to 46 per 100,000 inhabitants. — AFP