Ecuador declares state of emergency after drug lord escapes from prison

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has declared a state of emergency after the country's "most-wanted" gang leader escaped from prison.

The measure, put into place on Monday, lets authorities suspend people's rights and mobilise the military in places like jails.

Without directly mentioning the gang leader's disappearance, Mr Noboa said in a message on Instagram that he won't stop until he "brings back peace to all Ecuadorians," and that his government has decided to confront crime inside the prisons.

Authorities reported on Sunday that Adolfo Macias alias "Fito" and leader of the Los Choneros gang, wasn't in his cell, and by Monday they hadn't found him or explained what had happened.

Ecuador's prosecutor's office tweeted on Monday that it had filed charges against two prison guards as part of the investigation into the case which it is considering as a "prisoner's escape."

Macias was convicted of drug trafficking, murder and organised crime.

He was serving a 34-year sentence in La Regional prison of the port of Guayaquil, and he was scheduled on Sunday to be transferred to a maximum security facility in the same city.

Los Choneros is one of the Ecuadorian gangs authorities consider responsible for a spike in violence that reached a new level last year with the assassination of the presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.

The gang has links with Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, according to authorities.

National politicians have said the criminal group led by "Fito" threatened him, but so far authorities haven't directly accused Macias or his group of being behind Mr Villavicencio's murder.

Days after Mr Villavicencio's killing, Macias was moved out of La Regional to the maximum security prison in the same large complex of detention facilities in Guayaquil, but he was returned to the same lighter security prison within less than a month without any explanation.

In February 2013, "Fito" fled from a maximum security facility, but he was recaptured a few weeks later.

Los Choneros and other similar groups linked to Mexican and Colombian cartels are fighting over drug trafficking routes and control of territory, including from within detention facilities, where at least 400 inmates have died since 2021, according to authorities.

Experts and authorities have acknowledged that gang members practically rule from inside the prisons, and Macias is believed to have kept controlling his group from within the detention facility.