Escape of drug kingpin and prison disturbances test Ecuador's Noboa

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa is facing the first organized crime crisis of his government due to the escape of the country’s highest profile drug kingpin, Adolfo Macías, alias Fito, and disturbances in several prisons.

Macías is the leader of the Los Choneros criminal group – one of the most dangerous in the country – who is suspected of having ties to Mexican cartels. He was serving a 34-year sentence, of which he had already served 12, for drug trafficking, extorsion and organized crime, among other charges.

On Sunday the security forces realized his absence during a routine check and so far there are no indications of his whereabouts.

On Monday, meanwhile, there were riots in six prisons in Cotopaxi and Riobamba, in the center of the country; Azuay and Loja in the south; El Oro on the Pacific Coast, where prison officers were being held hostage; and problems in a jail in capital Quito, according to local media.

In videos broadcast by news outlets, the officers being held pleaded to Noboa for their lives.

Local media reported that in Cotopaxi at least 45 officers were being held hostage.

The events occurred after police on Friday captured Fabricio Colón, leader of the Los Lobos criminal gang, whom attorney general Diana Salazar accused of planning to assassinate her.

Communications secretary Roberto Izurieta said in a television interview that Macías had received information that he was going to be transferred from the Guayas regional prison to the La Roca maximum security prison, in the same province.

Local analysts say the crisis could become more serious due to the lack of a strategic vision to confront organized crime.

“The events clearly demonstrate the form of coordination of the criminals, they test the president's management, leadership and negotiation skills, as well as the need for the popular consultation that he plans to hold to have transcendent issues that can begin to be applied immediately after the results of the vote,” Luis Verdesoto, a political analyst and former anti-corruption secretary, told BNamericas.

Last week, Noboa sent to the constitutional court for approval 11 questions that he plans to submit to a popular consultation this year.

Among others, the questions address issues related to reforms to the organization and operations of the armed forces to combat national and transnational organized crime, and increasing penalties for crimes such as terrorism, drug production and trafficking, organized crime, contract killings, money laundering and illegal mining.

However, Noboa has been questioned because on the one hand he did not include the issue of extradition requested by various sectors and on the other there are no specific topics in the consultation, which if approved would legislation.

Noboa, who assumed the presidency in November, announced last week that he will build maximum security prisons similar to those in Mexico and El Salvador, with the same companies that built them in those countries.

In recent years, Ecuadoran prisons have been the scene of repeated massacres among inmates who dispute control of both the jails and the streets, according to authorities, due to their relationship with drug trafficking and transnational crime.