:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/grupoclarin/XVMMU6EG5FD2FAWRQAPSFASHLM.jpg "Petro affirmed that he will take action regarding the Ecuadorian fugitive “Fito”: The order is to capture him")
The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, stated this Wednesday that the authorities are working to confirm if the Ecuadorian fugitive Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias Fito, is a refugee in Colombia. In turn, Bogotá and Quito are negotiating the eventual repatriation of Colombian prisoners, for which Foreign Ministers Álvaro Leyva and Gabriela Sommerfeld held a conversation in Davos this Wednesday.
“If it exists, if it is a reality, the order is to capture him (Fito). Police intelligence is working (…) to confirm these types of statements; every big criminal has to be captured,” the president said in statements to the press during the World Economic Forum in Davos, in Switzerland.
Macías Villamar, head of the Los Choneros criminal gang, escaped from the Guayaquil regional prison last Sunday, January 7. This event coincided with the announcement made by the Government of Daniel Noboa of a new tough policy against criminal gangs operating in Ecuador.
Helder Giraldo, the commander of the Colombian Military Forces, expressed his suspicions about the presence of the criminal in his territory. “It is possible” that he crossed into Colombia, the soldier commented.
On the other hand, the newspaper El Tiempo reported that, from its investigations, it knows that “Fito” has connections with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), presumably with residual groups of that guerrilla dissolved in 2016.
After the disappearance of “Fito” and another drug boss, Fabricilo Colón Pico, the Ecuadorian government decreed a state of emergency for 60 days. This regime covers the country’s 36 prisons and includes a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.
The decision generated incidents in prisons, in which there was retention of penitentiary agents and administrative staff, however the situation was resolved last Saturday.
After the violent events that occurred last Tuesday, January 9, including the murders in the streets of Guayaquil and the temporary takeover of TC Televisión, the Ecuadorian president, Daniel Noboa, declared an internal armed conflict at the national level through a decree recognizing 22 gangs. criminal activities such as terrorist groups.
Many of these groups have ties to Mexican drug trafficking cartels.
At the same time, he announced the construction of two maximum security prisons to contain the prisoners, who are currently overcrowded in the prisons. On the other hand, they seek to expel the convicted foreigners to their respective countries, among whom are some 1,500 Colombians.
“We are in talks, building a path that allows, without falling into worse mistakes than those that have already been committed between both countries,” the Colombian president said in a statement, ensuring that they are negotiating to repatriate those Colombian prisoners.
The Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs of Colombia stated a week ago that the country is willing to activate the repatriation process for Colombian citizens deprived of liberty in Ecuador. This will be done through the Agreement on the Transit of People, Vehicles, River and Maritime Vessels and Aircraft, signed between both nations on April 18, 1990.
In turn, they warned that the repatriation of compatriots abroad requires the requests to be studied case by case, since it must have the consent of the person deprived of liberty.
“Ecuador is aware that this cannot be done overnight; It is a process that must respect the legal conditions of each country so that a problem worse than the one that already exists is not caused,” Petro stressed.
The issue was also addressed by Leyva, the Colombian foreign minister, and Sommerfeld, his Ecuadorian counterpart, in Davos.
“They spoke about the role of the two countries in Latin American integration and how to advance in actions that allow judicial collaboration that, in the case of the repatriation of prisoners, is respectful of the legal systems of both countries and the particular conditions of people deprived of liberty, with the understanding that each case must be studied individually,” the Colombian Foreign Ministry explained in a statement.