QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuadorean President Guillermo Lasso on Tuesday named a new director for the country’s prison agency, SNAI, following renewed violence in one of the nation’s most violent prisons.
Lasso has regularly declared states of emergency in prisons as he tries to tackle violence that has surged since 2021, claiming the lives of at least 400 prisoners.
The latest 60-day emergency declaration began in late July, after violence at Guayaquil’s Penitenciaria del Litoral.
Luis Ordonez, a retired soldier and intelligence expert, will replace Guillermo Rodriguez as the prison head, Lasso’s press office said in a statement. Rodriguez resigned last week amid criticism that he failed to make various improvements to the prison system.
Ordonez is the sixth director of the agency in Lasso’s two-year tenure. An early presidential election to decide Lasso’s successor will take place on Aug. 20.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Leslie Adler)
