Ecuador president declares state of emergency after drug lord escapes jail
- Manhunt under way for dangerous narco boss Adolfo Macias, alias ‘Fito’, following escape
- President Daniel Noboa came to power with promises to clamp down on gangs and insecurity
President Daniel Noboa on Monday declared a 60-day state of emergency after one of Ecuador’s most notorious drug lords escaped prison and renewed rioting broke out at other penitentiaries across the Andean nation.
The state of emergency includes a partial nightly curfew amid a manhunt of more than 3,000 police officers and soldiers to recapture Adolfo Macias, the head of the Los Choneros crime gang, after prison guards on Sunday noticed his absence from a penitentiary in Guayaquil.
“These narco-terrorists want to intimidate us and think that we’ll give in to their demands,” Noboa said in a video distributed on social networks.
The drug lord’s escape is an embarrassing development for the new administration that took office in November promising to control a crime wave that has turned Ecuador into one of Latin America’s most dangerous countries.
Fito, as Macias is commonly known, likely escaped after he was warned of his impending transfer to a more secure facility, Ecuador government spokesman Roberto Izurieta told local TV station Teleamazonas early Monday.
The saga is the latest indication that Ecuador’s prison system has “completely failed”, Izurieta said.