Prisoners in Ecuador kidnap guards after escape of drug lord Fito

Security forces in Ecuador are working to bring order back to six prisons where there were riots on Monday.

Prisoners have taken some guards captive and said they will hurt them if soldiers try to take back control of the prisons.

Four police officers were also taken away after President Daniel Noboa said that there was a serious situation.

The trouble started when the famous gang leader Fito escaped from jail.

Authorities stated that Fito, also known as Adolfo Macías Villamar, was not in his cell when the police came to take him to another jail in the same area on Sunday morning.

They looked in the high-security area where he was kept but did not find him yet.

Government spokesperson Roberto Izurieta said that Fito, the leader of the Los Choneros gang, was warned that he was going to be transferred from La Regional jail. He lived in a big cell with bright colored paint and murals.

It’s believed that he ran away just before he was supposed to be moved. Two prison guards are being held because they might have helped Fito escape.

The 44-year-old is the leader of a strong prison gang called Los Choneros. It is believed that this gang is responsible for a lot of the violent fights and riots in Ecuador’s prisons in the last few years.

Despite their leader being in prison, the Los Choneros gang still has a lot of influence outside of Ecuadorean prisons. Gang members also do illegal things like killing people for money, making people pay them for protection, and selling drugs in different parts of the country.

The group has teamed up with a strong drug gang in Mexico called Sinaloa. They work together to bring cocaine from Colombia through Ecuador’s port cities to the US and Europe.

Fito became the new leader of the gang when the old boss, Jorge Luis Zambrano, was killed in 2020.

He used to stay hidden, but then he sang a song that bragged about his crimes, and it seemed like he was trying to challenge the authorities. The song was released in September.

In the video, two singers and Fito’s daughter sing about the boss’s love for his family and his loyalty to those who support him. They say that he is unfairly criticized.

The secret video, made in spite of a rule against using electronic devices in jail, also shows Fito in the prison yard hanging out with other prisoners and petting a rooster.

His getaway is bad for President Noboa’s government. President Noboa had just taken office in November after winning an election that was marred by the killing of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.

Villavicencio said he got death threats from Fito, and then he got shot and killed after a campaign event in Quito.

Mr Noboa announced that there will be a state of emergency all over the country for two months. There will also be a curfew at night to try to stop the violence caused by Fito’s escape.

Three police officers are missing after they were taken by men in an unmarked car while working in Machala. Another policeman was taken away in the main city, Quito.

There have been explosions in the city of Cuenca and notes left behind asking for prison transfers to stop.