Ecuador prison staff held hostage by inmates all freed

Prison authorities say 158 guards and 20 administrative staffers were held by inmates in at least seven prisons.

All prison staff who were seized as hostages during prison riots in Ecuador amid a sharp uptick in violence have been freed, according to prison authorities.

“Security protocols and the joint work of the police and the national army enabled the release of all the hostages who were being held in various prisons across the country,” SNAI prison authorities said in a statement on the social media platform X on Saturday.

The hostages, which SNAI previously said were 158 prison guards and 20 administrative staffers, had been held hostage since last Monday, in at least seven prisons amid an escalating security crisis in the South American country.

Images broadcast by the police showed the guards, many in tears, exhausted and supported by their colleagues shortly after their release.

“We are released … Thank God we all got out safely,” a prison employee said in a video posted on social media, waving the Ecuadorian flag and standing in front of one prison in southern Cotopaxi province.