Two escaped prisoners recaptured in Santo Domingo and will be transferred to El Encuentro
Two of the six prisoners who escaped on Monday from a prison in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas were recaptured. Interior Minister Reimberg announced their transfer to the maximum-security prison.
Two escaped prisoners recaptured in Santo Domingo; to be transferred to maximum-security prison
Two of the six inmates who escaped on Monday from a penitentiary centre in the Ecuadorian province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas were recaptured, according to Interior Minister John Reimberg, who announced this on Tuesday in accordance with vistazo.com.
"These men, who escaped from the Santo Domingo prison and attempted to make a mockery of the State, await El Encuentro," Reimberg wrote on his social media, alongside a photograph of the two inmates. The detainees were identified as John Moises Chalco Zambrano and Serafín Sigifredo Vera Silva.
El Encuentro is the maximum-security prison built on the initiative of President Daniel Noboa, inspired by the penitentiary model of Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele.
Colonel Lenin Peralta, the police chief for the area, explained that police received an alert from the Integrated Security Service ECU-911. Upon arrival at the centre, officers verified the existence of a hole in the wall of a cell on the second floor, located in the maximum-security sector.
This opening communicates with a duct intended for laying pipes, a space that according to Peralta had previously been used by inmates to hide prohibited objects. The duct, which was also damaged, connects to the rear of the building, where officers found another hole.
From there, the escaped inmates would have walked approximately 80 metres until reaching a river that empties outside the prison.
Of the six who escaped, three were serving sentences for rape, one for murder, one for robbery, and one for drug possession. The remaining four remain at large.
Ecuadorian prisons have been one of the central focuses of the criminal violence crisis affecting the country: since 2021, nearly 600 inmates have been killed inside penitentiary centres, the majority during massacres caused by clashes between rival gangs.
Organisations such as the Global Initiative Against Organised Crime have warned that these facilities have become spaces from which illicit activities and territorial disputes that extend beyond the walls are coordinated.
Source: Google News DO — Santo Domingo