The Ecuadorian president, Guillermo Lasso, renewed the current state of emergency for the country’s prison system for another 30 days, in a decree signed from New York (USA), the Presidency of the Republic reported on Tuesday.
“The declaration of a state of emergency due to serious internal commotion in all deprivation of liberty centers that make up the Social Rehabilitation System at the national level, without exception, is renewed for 30 days in accordance with article 166 of the Constitution of the Republic. any, in the same terms established in Executive Decree No. 823 of July 24, 2023,” says the text, published on the digital page of the Presidency of the Republic.
The decree indicates that the renewal of this measure, until October 20, is based on the persistence of the events that caused its original declaration, because the risk to the safety, integrity and life of people deprived of liberty remains. personnel of the prison security body and members of the National Police and Armed Forces.
According to the official text, the objective is to control the circumstances that altered the functioning of the prison system, as well as to restore peaceful coexistence, order and the functioning of prisons.
Because of this decree, the rights to freedom of assembly and inviolability of correspondence of inmates are suspended in all social rehabilitation centers in the country.
The new decree came into force from its signature on September 21 electronically, without prejudice to its publication in the Official Registry.
The previous declaration was on July 24, for 60 days, due to the conflict in several prisons in the country, where clashes, hunger strikes and the retention of security guides by inmates were recorded.
Ecuador is experiencing an unprecedented wave of insecurity that affects prisons and the streets. This has already left, until the end of August, more than 3,500 violent deaths so far this year.
With information from Sputnik
