ECUADOR IN STATE OF EMERGENCY AFTER GANG LEADER FITO’S ESCAPE FROM PRISON

PUBLIC ENEMY N°1…

President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency for the entire country following the escape of Adolfo Macias, nicknamed “Fito”.

Who is this leader of the largest criminal gang in the country nicknamed “Fito”?

He is public enemy number one in Ecuador: “Fito”, whose real name is Adolfo Macias, is the leader of the “Choneros”, the largest criminal gang in the country. A group of around 12,000 men who have become the main player in drug trafficking in the country.

Imprisoned since 2011 in a high security prison in Guayaquil (South-West) where he was serving a 34-year sentence for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder, "Fito" has been missing since Sunday January 7. Adolfo Macias, better known as "Fito", escaped from the penitentiary in this port city in southern Ecuador on Sunday, hours before a control operation carried out in the prison.

An escape which forced President Daniel Noboa to declare a state of emergency for the entire country, including in the prison system, this criminal being public enemy No. 1 and leader of the largest criminal gang in the country , responsible for uprisings in prisons.

The 44-year-old criminal had already escaped for 3 months in 2013 from a high security prison.

“Differentiated and preferential treatment from the authorities”, (CIDH)

“Fito” had also taken charge of the section of the Guayaquil penitentiary center in which he was incarcerated. The walls are decorated with paintings to his glory and videos show him partying inside the establishment, with musicians and pyrotechnic devices. He even recorded the video clip for a "narcorroccido", a popular song in honor of drug traffickers: "El corrido del Leon". In this sequence, "Fito" appears wearing a large hat, in the prison courtyard and alongside four other inmates. He strokes a fighting cock and laughs to a tune sung notably by his daughter, known as Queen Michelle.

In a report published in 2022, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) highlighted the “significant internal control” exercised by the head of Los Choneros over the prison. She also noted that the latter, as well as Junior Roldan, another leader of the gang killed last year in Colombia, benefited from “differential and preferential treatment from the authorities”.

Presidential candidate executed

In recent months, "Fito", who obtained his lawyer's degree in prison, made the headlines in Ecuador after the assassination in early August of one of the main candidates in the presidential election. Fernando Villavicencio, a former journalist and parliamentarian, was shot dead by a Colombian hitman. Shortly before his execution, he said he was threatened with death by the leader of the Choneros

Los Choneros is a drug trafficking gang that appeared in the 1990s in the coastal province of Manabi, strategic for the export of cocaine to the United States and Europe.

Fito, who was only a modest taxi driver in another life, rose to the head of the gang after the successive deaths of the previous leaders. These changes have at the same time led to a fragmentation of the group made up of some 8,000 members, leading to “internal struggles” between its different offshoots, according to the Insight Crime research center. For example, the Tiguerones and the Chone Killers have disassociated themselves, becoming powerful rivals. Insight Crime affirms that, in this situation, Los Choneros have “progressively lost power to the benefit of an alliance led by Los Lobos”. The leader of the latter, Fabricio Colon Pico, also escaped this Tuesday from the prison in which he was incarcerated.

To strengthen themselves, the Choneros therefore established links with powerful criminal organizations in Colombia, such as the Clan del Golfo, and in Mexico, with the Sinaloa Cartel. The Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory also credits them with links to networks in the Balkans.

Ecuador in “internal armed conflict”

This Tuesday afternoon, a group of men terrorized journalists by arriving armed and hooded on the set of a television program in Guayaquil, in the southwest of the country.

The scene broadcast live shocked viewers. The journalists and other employees present were taken hostage by the attackers, forced to the ground and threatened with pistols, shotguns and grenades.

A situation which comes on top of the particularly tense context of the country, which was declared in a state of "internal armed conflict" by the president. The situation, becoming unmanageable, pushed the president to declare Ecuador in a state of "conflict internal armed force" and ordered the "neutralization" of the criminal groups involved, according to a decree made public Tuesday.

At least four police officers were also kidnapped in the southwestern coastal town of Machala and the capital Quito. These kidnappings occur in a high climate of tension which forced President Noboa to declare a state of emergency for sixty days throughout the country as well as a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Daniel Noboa, the 36-year-old Ecuadorian president, elected last fall following a serious political crisis, is facing a very high-risk security situation. Since Sunday January 7 and the flight of the "most dangerous criminal" in the country, hostage-taking and kidnapping of guards have continued in the country's prisons. The government cited “leaks of information” and the probable corruption of two prison officers in this mysterious escape.

The Ecuadorian president also spoke on the evening of Monday January 8 on Instagram, looking serious and concentrated, leather jacket half open, to announce that he was declaring a state of emergency and a curfew in all the countries. The security forces "are hard at work to find this extremely dangerous individual" who allegedly fled on Sunday "a few hours" before a control operation carried out in the Guayaquil prison. The prosecution opened an investigation against two prison officials “who allegedly participated in the escape”.

Images posted on social media, which could not be verified, showed guards being held at knifepoint by hooded men, pleading with the government to "act with caution" and "not send troops into prisons.”

Country ravaged by gang and drug trafficker violence

The name "Fito" has made headlines in the South American press in recent months, following the assassination in early August of one of the main candidates for the presidential election. The victim, a former journalist and parliamentarian, had reported death threats from the leader of the Choneros shortly before his execution.

A country that has become a logistics center for shipping cocaine to the West, Ecuador is ravaged by the violence of gangs and drug traffickers.