Ecuador: 41 hostage correctional officers released. China critic Lai wins elections in Taiwan – China reacts indignantly

Amid intense clashes between criminal gangs and state security forces in Ecuador, all correctional officers held hostage have now been released. The Ministry of Corrections announced this on Saturday (local time). Initially, 41 hostages, 24 prison guards and 17 administrative staff were released on Saturday. The remaining 136 correctional officers held by mutinous inmates in various prisons in the South American country were later released. Fighting in a prison left one guard dead and another injured.

Recently, criminal gangs have rioted in several prisons and taken numerous guards under their control. Many prisons in Ecuador are controlled by crime syndicates. Often, security forces simply ensure that detainees remain in detention centers. Within the walls they are largely left to their own devices.

After armed men stormed a studio of state TV channel TC Televisión during a live news broadcast on Tuesday and took numerous hostages, the government sent the army into battle against the gangs. President Daniel Noboa declared by decree that Ecuador was in an internal armed conflict. He declared 22 criminal groups terrorist organizations and non-state belligerents that must be eliminated.

The security situation in Ecuador had recently deteriorated dramatically. The murder rate of 46.5 murders per 100,000 inhabitants last year was the highest in the history of the once peaceful Andean country and one of the highest in Latin America. Several gangs linked to powerful Mexican cartels are fighting for control of drug trafficking routes. Ecuador is a major transit country for cocaine from Colombia, Peru and Bolivia that is smuggled to the United States and Europe. (sda/dpa)