The remains of assassinated presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio upon arrival at the Camposanto Monteolivo cemetery for burial, Friday, August 11, 2023, in Quito, Ecuador. The 59-year-old candidate was shot dead in an electoral act on August 9, in Quito. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega) Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
Flowers hang from the gate of the cemetery during the funeral of slain presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, Friday, August 11, 2023, in Quito, Ecuador. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa) Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
The authorities of the prison system reported in a statement that the operation seeks to locate weapons, ammunition and explosives in the Guayaquil regional prison, without mentioning whether the inspection has to do with the investigation of the Villavicencio crime.
The National Comprehensive Care Service for Adults Deprived of Liberty (SNAI) released images of the raid and showed several prisoners, although it highlighted images of José Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito” and considered the leader of Los Choneros, a crime group. organization designated by the authorities as having ties to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel.
Villavicencio, shot to death Wednesday as he left a political rally, had said days before that Fito threatened him and his campaign team.
On Friday, an Ecuadorian judge ordered the preventive detention of six Colombians prosecuted as suspects in the murder of Villavicencio, to whom relatives and supporters said their last goodbye two days after the crime that shook Ecuador, just over a week before the general elections. and in the midst of a wave of violence that affects various parts of the South American country.
According to the authorities, the organization known as “Fito” exercises dominance in that prison in the country. The capo appears in the images in his underwear, his hands raised to his head; while he is taken out of the pavilion and can later be seen on the floor with the other inmates. He is serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking, organized crime and homicide.
After the last massacre at the end of July in the adjacent Litoral prison, which according to the authorities left 31 dead and 14 injured, Macías appeared in a video giving statements from La Regional, announcing a supposed peace pact with other criminal groups and the police. , which was officially denied.
The Guayaquil Regional Jail is located 270 kilometers southwest of Quito and within a prison complex. Currently, some 4,761 inmates are being held in this center with a capacity for 4,505 inmates, according to the prison authorities.
A recent raid on the Litoral Penitentiary, also located within the same prison complex and which is considered one of the most dangerous in the Andean country, made it possible to seize, in addition to weapons and ammunition, a pool with fish, chicken and duck farms, and 15 dogs. .
Since 2021, Ecuador’s prisons have been the scene of bloody confrontations between criminal gangs that authorities attribute to the power dispute, control of territory for control of national and international drug trafficking and micro-trafficking routes. This has led to a wave of violence and insecurity in the streets, especially in the coastal provinces of the country in recent years.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
