MEXICO CITY, Mexico: Security forces have launched an operation in a major Ecuador prison complex in the port city of Guayaquil.
Soldiers and police officers have entered the facility and said they had restored order following a week of rioting in prisons across the country.
Daniel Noboa, Ecuador’s President, has said his government is at war with gangs and organised crime.
Earlier this month, gang leader Adolfo Macías Villamar, known as “Fito”, escaped from the same prison complex.
Images showed hundreds of troops storming the main jail in Guayaquil, as President Daniel Noboa’s crackdown on gangs shows little sign of slowing down.
The troops appear to have taken back command of the penitentiary which is considered the base of operations for the drug gangs in the city of Guayaquil.
The government’s recent move comes after the assassination of César Suárez, a prosecutor who was investigating organised crime in Ecuador.
Mr Suarez, who was murdered on his way to a hearing on Wednesday, had been looking into a siege at a local television station in Guayaquil when gunmen wearing masks took over the channel live on air and held the media-men hostage at gunpoint.
Authorities have already detained two people accused of killing Mr Suárez. According to local media reports, the two suspects belong to a criminal gang linked to one of Mexico’s powerful drug cartels.
Earlier this year, drug gang leader Fito’s escape from La Regional jail sparked a wave of violence both inside the prison system and on the streets. Police had entered the jail on January 7 looking to move Fito to a higher security wing within the same compound, but found his cell empty.
Two jail guards have been charged with helping him escape. The government believed that Fito had been tipped off about his impending transfer.
