Colombia, like many Latin American countries, has expressed support for the Ecuadorian government and said Wednesday it would increase military presence and control along their nearly 600-kilometer shared border.

Colombia’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Noboa’s deportation plan.

The president also doubled down on his plans to separate gang leaders from the general prison population, tighten security at ports and fight corruption, among other measures.

More than 100 people detained

Authorities have provided little information about those being held in prisons, although prison agency SNAI said in a statement Tuesday that 11 people had been released. He added that 125 of those detained were security guards and 14 were administrative employees.

Videos have been circulating on social media showing acts of violence against prison staff, including executions and hangings. Reuters The authenticity of the images could not be verified.

“We are making every effort to return all hostages. and we are not going to give in to the stupid things that they are used to doing, I mean the terrorists who are sitting in these prisons,” Noboa said.

“This is a measure of pressure from terrorists, they themselves are distributing images to terrorize citizens and see if they can subdue the president, which will not happen,” he added.

About 70 people have been arrested since Monday in connection with the incidents, Platform X police said on Wednesday.

Violence continues in Guayaquil, the country’s largest city, police said, adding that they had identified three bodies found overnight in a burned-out car south of the city.

Two police officers were killed by gunmen on Tuesday in Guayas province, where Guayaquil is located. Police did not provide further details.

Judges who release criminals will be considered terrorists

In the same radio interview, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa warned that judges who release criminals would also be considered terrorists.

The people who help these terrorist groups are part of a terrorist organization, which was not the case before.

Noboa added that what happened yesterday in Guayaquil was because criminal leaders such as Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, aka Fito, They felt comfortable in the prisons they moved in and out of due to penal corruption.

He explained that on Saturday evening leader of the group “Los Choneros” facing a sentence of 34 years in prison, he was still in prison in Guayaquil, but upon learning that he would be transferred to a maximum security prison, such as in Mexico or El Salvador, he escaped.

In connection with the above, The police who were planning to move him last Sunday never found him again. The city of Guayaquil has been hit by riots that have so far killed eight people, including police officers and prison guards, organized by criminal gangs that President Noboa has designated as terrorist organizations.

Regarding the decree that classifies Ecuador’s most dangerous criminal groups as terrorists, he regretted that the human rights of the criminals were being discussed and not the people kidnapped by the organization.

“They are used to scaring the government, scaring citizens, “Now that fear must be in them.”– he pronounced the verdict.

He added that with the declaration of “a state of non-international armed conflict”, The process with the armed forces will be much more difficultagainst criminals, in addition to the fact that leaders and criminal groups have now been identified, whereas previously they had neither a name nor a surname.

(according to Reuters)