Hostage crisis: Inmates seize 50 guards, 7 police officers in 6 prisons in Ecuador

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Authorities in Ecuador have confirmed that prisoners in a correctional facility in Cuenca took 50 guards and seven police officers captive.

The incident began on Wednesday afternoon following the transfer of inmates from a prison in Cotopaxi province.

​​"The public is informed that as of 18:00 this Thursday, August 31, 7 police members and 50 servers of the Penitentiary Security and Surveillance Corps (CSVP) are being held in six detention centers," the National Prisons Agency (SNAI) said in a statement.

The SNAI stated that this event appears to be a response from criminal groups to recent security interventions within the country's prisons. Authorities are actively taking measures to restore order within the penitentiary system.

This hostage crisis follows two car bomb explosions in Quito, which were allegedly in response to ongoing efforts by authorities to reform the nation's prison system.

"There are violent actions like that of the two cars burned in Quito last night, clearly that's a reaction to an action. The action of imposing order in the prisons, the reaction to intimidate," President Guillermo Lasso said at an event in Los Rios province.

A video that is circulating on social media shows detained police and correctional officers asking the government to secure their release.

Ecuador's prisons have been marked by power struggles among drug trafficking gangs. In response to violent clashes between criminal organizations, Lasso declared a 60-day state of emergency for the entire penitentiary system on July 24, which allows him to deploy the military inside jails.

Violent disputes between organized crime gangs have killed over 430 inmates in Ecuadorian prisons since 2021.