Ecuador: Gang-ruled prisons, assassinated politicians and a drug lord’s killing
A mass hostage taking in Ecuador’s gang-ruled prisons and the assassination of a politician are the latest bloody episodes in a country gripped by the cocaine trade.
The South American nation has descended into violence in recent years, with the government shown to be weak in the face of increasingly brutal drug cartels.
Earlier this week inmates in six different prisons took dozens of guards and police hostage for more than a day, while outside the walls explosions went off across the country.
The 50 guards and seven officers were eventually let go and were reported to be safe – but the circumstances under which they were released are unclear.
The government believes members of criminal gangs inside the prisons carried out the violence in response to efforts to take back control of several jails – relocating inmates and seizing weapons.
Authorities have also pointed to a power vacuum created by the killing of a druglord known as Rasquina three years ago as pouring fuel on the fire, but experts say the problem goes back much further…
Prisoners stand on the roof of the Turi jail Cuenca earlier this week. Pic: AP
‘A wave of retaliation that ended up claiming his life’
Security analyst Daniel Ponton believes this week’s violence is intended to generate fear among the population – and influence politics.
He said the attacks were “systematic and clearly planned” and showed the state was ineffective at preventing violence.
Ecuador is set to elect a new president in a run-off vote next month, but one of the prominent candidates was assassinated before the first round.
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Footage shows moments before presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot and killed.
Fernando Villavicencio had made clear he was willing to challenge organised crime – and had a plan to do it.
The former journalist had proposed militarising Ecuador’s ports and taking back control of the prisons, Will Freeman, a political scientist at the Council on Foreign Relations thinktank, told Sky News.
“In a sense his proposals set off a wave of retaliation that ended up claiming his life,” Mr Freeman said.
Mr Villavicencio had accused the Los Choneros cartel and its imprisoned leader, Adolfo Macias, of threatening him and his campaign team days before the assassination.
Prisoners shout from a rooftop demanding the release of Los Choneros leader Adolfo Macias, known as Fito
Competition over drug routes through Ecuador
Ecuador is a “drug trafficker’s paradise” sandwiched between the world’s two largest producers of coca (the plant from which cocaine is derived), Mr Freeman says.
Amounts of cocaine seized in the country – which notably do not include the amount that evades authorities – have skyrocketed in recent years.
The national currency is dollars which makes it ideal for cartels wanting to launder money, he added.
“Narcotrafficking didn’t begin yesterday in Ecuador,” he said. “It’s being going on since the ’90s, 2000s.”
But he says it used to be under the control of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), who had a monopoly.
But when FARC laid down their weapons as part of a peace agreement in 2016, things changed.
Police officers and soldiers detain two men outside a prison who were supporting inmates protesting for the return of a drug cartel leader. Pic: AP
Since then, control over the drug routes across the Ecuador-Colombia border has been a competition among several groups, Dr Annette Idler, an associate professor of global security at the University of Oxford, told Sky News.
Mexican drug cartels, present in Ecuador since the 1990s, have also taken advantage of the situation, she said.
She added: “Another factor is domestic groups that are the ones we’ve seen involved in the prison violence, they’ve become more professionalised.
“There’s a lot of competition over drug trafficking routes that go from Colombia via Ecuador to the US and that then has led to those unprecedented levels of violence in the country.”
Death of a drug lord
Ecuadorian authorities have suggested that some of the recent violence stems from the power vacuum created by the assassination of Jorge Luis Zambrano, the leader of Los Choneros.
Asked if this was the case, both Mr Freeman and Dr Idler said it played a role but was part of a much bigger picture.
Zambrano, known by his nickname Rasquina, led the cartel as it took over much of the drug trade left by the demobilisation of FARC.
Mr Freeman said: “When he was taken out there began to be more intense fighting between Los Choneros and their rivals, and also within Los Choneros among mid-level commanders for control of the organisation – fighting which continues to this day.”
“That explains some of the violence”, Dr Idler told Sky News. But she added: “It’s just a smaller piece of a much larger picture, which is much more about the geopolitical landscape and the security landscape that is about the cocaine.
“So it’s much more about understanding how those different types of illicit flows, the cocaine flows, the weapons that are being trafficked… how they are shaping the ways in which different types of groups try to have control over the territory.”
Asked what the solution is to the crisis, Dr Idler says the problem cannot be solved by Ecuador alone.
Instead, she says, it needs to be a regional approach with investment in development, sustainability and building capacity across multiple countries.
World
Washington DC shooting: Trump condemns ‘monstrous’ attack near White House – and says suspect is Afghan national
Donald Trump has called for every Afghan national who entered the US under the Biden administration to be investigated following the shooting of two National Guard troops near the White House.
The president said the “monstrous, ambush-style attack” was carried out by an Afghan national who arrived in September 2021 during America’s chaotic withdrawal from Kabul.
“This attack underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation,” Mr Trump said in an address to the nation from Florida.
He vowed to “reexamine every single alien” who has entered the US from Afghanistan under the previous government, and said: “I am determined to ensure the animal who perpetrated this atrocity will pay the steepest possible price.”
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Trump condemns ‘animal’ shooting suspect
Suspect to face terror probe
America’s citizenship and immigration office said it had stopped processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely.
Sky’s US partner network, NBC News, reports the suspect in custody is 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
Both guardsmen were shot in the head, according to NBC, citing senior officials briefed on the investigation.
Wednesday’s shooting – carried out with a handgun – will be investigated by the FBI as a possible act of terror.
The White House was placed into lockdown following the incident, while Mr Trump is away for Thanksgiving.
Pics: AP
Victims in ‘critical condition’
West Virginia’s governor initially said both victims were members of his state’s National Guard and had died from their injuries – but later posted to say there were “conflicting reports about the condition of our two Guard members”.
Patrick Morrisey had said: “These brave West Virginians lost their lives in the service of their country.”
Hundreds of National Guard members have been patrolling the capital after Mr Trump issued an emergency order in August, which federalised the local police force and sent in the guard from eight states and the District of Columbia.
Mr Trump has announced an extra 500 troops will be deployed in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting.
FBI director Kash Patel said the troops were “brazenly attacked in a horrendous act of violence”.
At a news conference, he clarified they were in a “critical condition”.
Pic: AP
Former president Joe Biden, who was heavily criticised by Mr Trump in his address, said he and his wife Jill were “heartbroken” by the shooting.
“Violence of any kind is unacceptable, and we must all stand united against it,” said a statement.
How the attack unfolded
Jeff Carroll, chief of the metropolitan police department in the area, said the attack began at 2.15pm local time (7.15pm in the UK) while National Guard members were on “high visibility patrols in the area”.
He said: “A suspect came around the corner, raised his arm with a firearm and discharged it at the National Guard.
“The National Guard members were… able to – after some back and forth – able to subdue the individual and bring them into custody.”
Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser called the attack a “targeted shooting”.
Pics: AP
Social media footage showed first responders attempting CPR on one of the soldiers as they treated the other on a pavement covered in glass.
Nearby other officers could be seen restraining an individual on the ground.
Emergency personnel cordon off an area near where the National Guard soldiers were shot. Pics: AP
The scene was cordoned off by police tape, while agents from the US Secret Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives attended the scene, as National Guard troops stood sentry nearby.
The FBI was also on the scene, the agency’s director said.
World
Lindsay and Craig Foreman: Son of British couple detained in Iran says government not doing enough
The son of a British couple detained in Iran has said the UK government is not doing enough to secure their release.
Lindsay and Craig Foreman, from East Sussex, were taken into custody in Kerman in January during a motorcycle tour around the world and later charged with espionage, which they deny.
In August, the pair were moved to different jails in Tehran, before being reunited in October at Evin prison, where British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held between 2016 and 2022.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Pic: Reuters
‘You need to stand up for your citizens’
Lindsay’s son, Joe Bennett, told Sky News there are too many similarities with Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s situation.
“They themselves are being very passive,” he said of the UK government.
“They’ve got two UK citizens that are accused of spying for the British state, but they’re not coming out and defending them and calling [it out] for what it is.
“You need to stand up for your citizens and call it out.”
Speaking to The World With Dominic Waghorn, Mr Bennett dismissed Iran’s accusation of espionage against his mother and her partner – and accused the regime of “hostage taking”.
Lindsay Foreman with her son Joe Bennett. Pic: Family handout
‘They’re not spies’
Asked whether he had any sympathy with the argument that making too much of the situation makes their release less likely, Mr Bennett said there was “no justification” for the Foreign Office taking such an approach.
“If they’re on charges of shoplifting, potentially that’s understandable, let’s see the court of law, let’s go through it if they’ve been caught of some wrongdoing,” he said.
“They haven’t, and they’ve been accused of espionage, which is state-level political charges, right?
“They’re not spies, it’s quite simple.”
Read more from Sky News:
Court hearing ‘did not go well’ for British couple
Iran protests ‘bring back memories’ of helplessness
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard is supporting Mr Bennett’s case.
He told Sky News: “It does feel to me that I’m hearing too many echoes of our experience in the experience of Joe’s family and others.”
Joe Bennett and Richard Ratcliffe
The Foreign Office warns all British and British-Iranian nationals against all travel to Iran because of “significant risk of arrest, questioning, or detention”.
In October, a spokesperson told Sky News the department was deeply concerned by reports that the Foremans had been charged with espionage and that it was providing them with consular support.
Soldiers have appeared on state TV in Guinea-Bissau to say the country’s military has seized power, accusing its president of interfering in Sunday’s election as he revealed he had been “deposed”.
Military spokesperson Dinis N’Tchama said in a statement that the military had decided to “immediately depose the president of the republic” and suspend all government institutions.
He said they acted in response to the “discovery of an ongoing plan” that he said aimed to destabilise the country by attempting to “manipulate electoral results”.
Guinea Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo at the UN in 2023. File pic: Reuters
The “scheme was set up by some national politicians with the participation of a well-known drug lord, and domestic and foreign nationals”, Mr N’Tchama said, but gave no details.
The country has emerged as a hub for drug trafficking between Latin America and Europe.
The electoral process was being suspended immediately, along with the activities of the media, while the country’s borders were being closed, he said.
Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embaló told French television network France 24: “I have been deposed.”
French news outlet Jeune Afrique quoted Mr Embaló as saying he was arrested in what he called a coup led by the army chief of staff but did not suffer violence.
An international election observer told Associated Press the president “has been speaking to people saying he’s being held by the military”.
Gunfire was heard near the presidential palace in the capital, Bissau, around noon on Wednesday.
A palace official said a group of armed men tried to attack the building, leading to an exchange of gunfire with guards.
Gunshots were also heard around the nearby national electoral commission, an interior ministry official said.
Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity.
Roads leading to the palace were closed off, with checkpoints manned by heavily armed and masked soldiers, an AP reporter said.
Meanwhile, Mr Embaló and opposition candidate Fernando Dias da Costa both claimed victory on Tuesday in the presidential and legislative elections held on Sunday, even though official provisional results were not expected until Thursday.
Read more on Sky News:
Man admits driving into football fans
Fire engulfs high-rise buildings
Farmers’ parliament protest
Mr Embaló, who was elected in February 2020, was due to stand down earlier this year after serving a five-year term.
That was extended until 4 September by the country’s supreme court, but voting was delayed until this month.
Guinea-Bissau has seen four coups and numerous attempted ones since it gained independence in 1974, including one reported last month.
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