Ecuadorians Reject Construction of High-Security Prison in the Amazon Region
The banner reads, “NO to prison”, Archidona, Ecuador, Dec. 13, 2024. X/ @AnalisisUrbano
December 13, 2024 Hour: 1:11 pm
Currently, Ecuador holds the highest per capita homicide rate in Latin America, with 47.2 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.
On Thursday night, protests against the construction of a maximum-security prison in Archidona, a city located in the province of Napo, continued with intensity for the second consecutive week.
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Earlier, it was revealed that Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa had already awarded the task of building a prison modeled after the “Bukele style” to a private company.
“NO to the prison! NO to the prison!” chanted citizens during a massive assembly convened by the Indigenous movement and other organizations leading the protests, which have included blockades around the city of Archidona.
At the event, which was attended by Archidona’s mayor, Amanda Grefa, approximately 3,000 people agreed to continue the demonstrations. Following this, outraged citizens marched to the city’s main square to protest in front of the governor’s office, breaking through police barricades along the way.
“This is a fight for the people and the community because we do not want the prison. We want life and peace,” Grefa emphasized, highlighting the concerns of a province whose economy relies heavily on ecotourism and agriculture.
“We don’t want a prison. We want to enhance tourism and develop infrastructure like schools, roads, and hospitals,” said Melida Aguinda, a resident who expressed the community’s fears about the consequences of hosting a prison that authorities plan to use to house the country’s most dangerous criminals.
Earlier this week, Leonidas Iza, a former presidential candidate and leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), warned that Indigenous communities would intensify their protests if the Noboa administration proceeded with the project without prior consultation with the local Indigenous population.
Meanwhile, in the coastal province of Santa Elena, the Noboa administration has already begun constructing another maximum-security prison in a dry forest area.
A nearby community has filed a legal action requesting the judiciary halt the construction, arguing that local residents were not consulted as required by the Constitution.
Despite public resistance, Noboa remains determined to build two prisons, each with a capacity for 736 inmates. However, their size will be significantly smaller than the Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s flagship Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), which can house 40,000 inmates.
In Ecuador, the two prisons will cost US$52 million. Construction of the first facility is being handled by Puentes y Calzadas Infraestructuras, a subsidiary of the Spanish company Puentes Group, which was acquired in 2020 by the Chinese state-owned company China Road and Bridge Corporation. This company is reportedly also chosen to build the Archidona prison.
Since 2021, over 500 inmates have been killed in Ecuadorian prisons, most during massacres between rival gangs amid a wave of criminal violence that has also spilled onto the streets. As of 2023, Ecuador holds the highest per capita homicide rate in Latin America, with 47.2 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE
