Hostages' families in Ecuador seek faster action as Noboa plans new prisons

Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa has laid out plans for two new high-security prisons, part of his pledge to wage war on drug gangs, as the families of nearly 180 prison staff being held hostage by inmates demanded action to rescue them.

The guards' families and union criticised the government's response on Thursday.

"Tonight, it will be five nights where we don't know anything about our husbands, sons, daughters," said the wife of a guard at a prison in the city of Latacunga, among a group of relatives gathered outside the jail.

"The authorities don't give any solution; they don't say anything."

"We are waiting for them with open arms," said the woman, who asked not to be named for security reasons, through tears.

"The government must do something."

Noboa's government blames the deteriorating security situation on an increase in drug trafficking through Ecuador, which borders cocaine-producing Colombia and Peru and has become a major drug shipment point.

The president, with congressional backing, has declared a 60-day state of emergency, sending the military onto the streets and naming 22 gangs as terrorist groups.

New prisons

Noboa has pledged to hold jailed gang leaders in the new prisons.

The facilities will have space for 736 prisoners, divided between high security, maximum security and super-maximum security, Noboa's office said in a statement on Thursday.

The construction of the facilities "is the start of an urgent healing of the penitentiary system," Noboa said in a video, adding that tougher laws, honest judges, and the ability to extradite criminals wanted abroad were also necessary.

"The unrest in prisons and on the street is a clear demonstration of the fear that criminals feel in the face of the security policies that we are implementing," he said.

"We will not allow groups of terrorists to hold back this country."

The facilities will block cellular and satellite signals, generate their own electricity, treat their own water, and employ guards whose faces will be covered for anonymity, the government said.

Currently, Ecuador has only about 2,600 prison guards nationally to manage 32,000 prisoners, not including youth detention centres.

"We are working with more than 38 nations who will give us international assistance," Noboa told radio station FM Mundo. "We need military support in terms of manpower, of soldiers, also assistance in intelligence, armament and equipment."

Ongoing operations

Prisons agency SNAI said in a statement on Thursday that operations to liberate the hostages were ongoing.

Carlos Ordonez, vice president of the prison workers' association, called the situation "very worrying."

"We still don't know what the conditions are on the inside," he said.

"No one goes in, no one comes out; we don't have exact information."

Ordonez said the military had taken over management of the sites where there are hostages.

Videos purporting to show prison staff being subjected to extreme violence, including shooting and hanging, have circulated on social media, although armed forces commander Rear Admiral Jaime Vela said on Wednesday no hostage had been killed.

Noboa told a radio station on Thursday that some videos had been altered.

"For now, we understand and hope that it's not our colleagues in the videos ... We think they are all still alive," said Ordonez, adding that his group had filed a habeas corpus petition to try and pressure the government to do more.

The number of prison officers held hostage in Ecuador violence increased to 178 after the crisis expanded to other prisons, SNAI said in a statement.

Ecuador at war with gangs

Noboa has said he will not negotiate with the gangs, declaring them "terrorists" whom the country was "at war" with.

A video circulating on social media on Thursday apparently shows Fabricio Colon Pico — an alleged gang member who is suspected of a plot against the attorney general and who escaped from a penitentiary on Tuesday — asking to surrender if his life would be protected.

In response, Noboa said terrorists should be treated like terrorists.

Meanwhile, the military conducted raids and weapon seizures around the country.

Vela said on Wednesday that 329 people, mostly from gangs including Los Choneros, Los Lobos and Los Tiguerones, had been detained since the president declared a state of emergency on Monday.

The attorney general's office said its officials were working double shifts to process those arrested.

Police in Quito conducted a controlled detonation of an explosive near a road bridge on Thursday, and further arrests for alleged terrorism and drug crimes took place around the country.

Oil and mining production has so far been unaffected by the unrest; the government has said, while export routes for products like bananas and cacao are being protected.

But streets in Quito and Guayaquil remained quieter than usual on Thursday, with school classes taking place virtually and many people working from home.