The roof structure of La Roca (Guayaquil), the maximum security prison in Ecuador, suffered severe damage this Tuesday when a controlled detonation of a drone with explosives was carried out that landed on the roof of this prison during the early hours of the morning.
The National Police of Ecuador, in charge of neutralizing the explosive device, indicated through its official channels that the detonation caused no victims or injuries.
An important part of the roof that covers the prison courtyard was exposed after the explosion, as seen in an aerial photograph released by the Minister of the Interior, Juan Zapata.
Before the explosion, some prisoners were also transferred from the neighboring Guayaquil Regional Prison who were closer to the perimeter of La Roca, according to Zapata.
In the prisons of Guayaquil there are precedents of explosive attacks with drones as well as the entry of prohibited objects such as weapons using these flying objects, within the framework of the confrontation between criminal gangs that internally control the prisons and that have murdered more than 400 prisoners since 2020 in different prison massacres.
Until last week, the leader of the criminal gang Los Choneros, Adolfo Macías “Fito”, was in La Roca, who returned to the Guayaquil Regional Prison thanks to a court order that revoked his entry into the maximum security prison.
“Fito” had been transferred to La Roca a few days after the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who had pointed out to him as the alleged origin of the death threats he had received days before the crime.
The Minister of Government, Henry Cucalón, confirmed this Tuesday that, although he completely disagrees, the Government complied with the judicial measure and returned “Fito” to the Guayaquil Regional Prison, a prison that is internally controlled by Los Choneros.
Ecuador is experiencing a wave of violence that authorities attribute to organized crime, mainly dedicated to drug trafficking, which has caused the country to go from 5.8 to 25.32 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022 in five years, the highest figure since records began, and which according to experts could reach 40 this year.
