Ecuador repatriates 13 Colombian prisoners

Some 13 detainees of Colombian nationality were repatriated from Ecuador to their country of origin, the Foreign Ministry reported this Thursday, a measure with which the government seeks to reduce violence in the prisons of the Andean country and overcrowding in the midst of a security crisis.

Among the repatriated foreign prisoners are 11 men and two women who were held in a prison in the city of Tulcán, in the border province of Carchi, in northern Ecuador, a statement from the Foreign Ministry reported.

The delivery was formalized at the Rumichaca International Bridge, the main border crossing between both countries, the official report added.

In January, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa signed a decree directing the governing body of the penitentiary system to carry out the administrative procedures for the repatriation of foreign prisoners “so that their sentence is carried out in the country of origin.”

It was not reported what type of crimes the 13 Colombian inmates were being held for, but His repatriation had been admitted at the beginning of April by the Colombian authorities. as part of the dialogues between the foreign ministers of both nations.

Given the announcement that President Noboa made in December regarding the repatriation of some 1,500 foreign prisonersbetween Colombians, Peruvians and Venezuelans, the Colombian authorities observed that this could not be collective but had to be analyzed case by case.

This is the first group of foreign prisoners who are repatriated in the Noboa government.

Ecuador faces a crisis of violence and crime which rose since 2021 when a series of massacres and clashes between criminal gangs broke out, which the authorities attribute to the struggle for spaces of power and control of drug trafficking routes.

They also maintain that prisons are the command centers from which all series of crimes that have been increasing such as hitmen, extortion, kidnappings and robberies are carried out.

On January 9, Noboa declared an internal armed conflict that lasted until the beginning of April and with which he sought to confront organized crime organizations, which he called “terrorists.”

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