In view of that situation, in coordination with the National Police and the National Service of Attention to Prisoners (SNAI), they activated the investigation and search protocols to locate and recapture the inmates, the Joint Command stated.

So far, the SNAI has not commented on the incident but, according to the police, the fugitives broke a window inside their cell and made a rope with the sheets to escape.

That incident occurs while the country is amid a state of emergency and internal armed conflict that President Daniel Noboa decreed on January 9 to crack down organized crime.

In that way, the president opened a legal door for the military and police to act with all their resources to neutralize the 22 criminal groups classified as terrorists.

Already 9,473 suspects have been arrested in over 118,000 law enforcement operations.

This week, the head of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, Jaime Vela, assured that the military will remain in the prisons “until it is necessary.”

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