The minister’s statements came after Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa revealed his intentions to defuse the overcrowding of his country’s prisons with the release of foreign prisoners.

President Noboa told Radio Canela that “Colombia said they wanted to help us, and I said perfect, we already sent them 1,500 prisoners who we keep in Ecuadorian jails,” referring to the aid offers from other nations ahead of violence outbreak prevailing in Ecuador nowadays.

Novoa noted that inmates “have already been sentenced to five-year imprisonment, or even more, executed;” therefore, they can be sent back to their country of origin. Noboa recalled that “according to Ecuadorian law and international treaties, we can take those 1,500 inmates and leave them at the border.”

Meanwhile, the minister assured the press that if a prisoner is expelled from jail, he is simply released; thus, upon arrival at the border, any Colombian citizen can enter Colombia.

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