Prisoners in Ecuador take 57 guards and police hostage as car bombs rock the capital

[Judi Lynn]

SEPTEMBER 1, 2023 / 11:49 AM / AP

Ecuador was rocked by a series of car bombings and the hostage-taking of more than 50 law enforcement officers inside various prisons Thursday, just weeks after the country was shaken by the assassination of a presidential candidate. Ecuador's National Police reported no injuries resulting from the four explosions in Quito, the capital, and in a province that borders Peru, while Interior Minister Juan Zapata said none of the law enforcement officers taken hostage in six different prisons had been injured.

Authorities said the brazen actions were the response of criminal groups to the relocation of various inmates and other measures taken by the country's corrections system. The crimes happened three weeks after the slaying of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.

The corrections system, known as the National Service for Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty, has in recent years lost control of large prisons, which have been the site of violent riots resulting in dozens of deaths. It has taken to transferring inmates to manage gang-related disputes.

In Quito, the first bomb went off Wednesday night in an area where an office of the country's corrections system was previously located. The second explosion in the capital happened early Thursday outside the agency's current base.

Ecuador National Police Gen. Pablo Ramírez, the national director of anti-drug investigations, told reporters on Thursday that police found gas cylinders, fuel, fuses and blocks of dynamite among the debris of the crime scenes in Quito, where the first vehicle to explode was a small car and the second was a pickup truck.

More:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ecuador-prisoners-57-guards-police-hostage-car-bombs-rock-capital/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Dozens of prison officers freed after being taken hostage in Ecuador jails

By Ana María Cañizares, Marlon Sorto and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN
Published 6:32 AM EDT, Sat September 2, 2023

CNN
—

Fifty prison guards and seven police officers have been freed after being taken hostage by inmates held in six prisons across Ecuador, authorities said, part of a coordinated protest against security operations being conducted inside the country’s violence-plagued penitentiaries.

The protests began on Thursday, according to Ecuador’s penitentiary service, the SNAI, hours after the military carried out a major operation involving more than 2,200 security personnel at prison in Latacunga, a city south of the capital, Quito.

The military said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it was attempting to “control weapons, ammunition, and explosives” at the facility.

Inmates and their allies responded by taking hostages and, according to Ecuador’s Ministry of the Interior, setting off two car bombs in Quito on Thursday that targeted SNAI buildings, one of which is no longer in use by the agency. At least six people were arrested following the blasts, the ministry said.

The SNAI said on Saturday that all hostages had been freed following a “coordinated operation” and that prison was now running normally.

More:
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/02/americas/ecuador-prison-guards-hostage-intl/index.html