Colombians Repatriated to Alleviate Ecuador Prisons

A group of 13 Colombians serving prison sentences in Ecuador were repatriated and transferred to a penitentiary in the border city of Ipiales, as part of a measure to alleviate overcrowding in Ecuadorian prisons.

"At this moment they are in the process of entering the country and then they will be taken by the authorities to the prison facility," Colombia's Deputy Minister of Criminal Policy, Camilo Umaña, said.

Daniel Gutiérrez, director of the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute of Colombia, valued "the commitment and management of the Ipiales Prison and Penitentiary for the great work in the repatriation of the 13 people", in his X account.

In January, Ecuador's president, Daniel Noboa, announced that he would expel some 1,500 Colombians serving prison sentences from the country. The Colombian government initially rejected the measure, but later agreed to evaluate it "on a case-by-case basis."

"Initially we are going to detain them in the Ipiales prison.And once they are detained there, we will ensure that they are detained close to their places of origin," Colombia's Minister of Justice, Néstor, explained. Osuna, in an interview with Caracol Television.

The mechanism applied in these cases "consists of Colombian nationals convicted of crimes in Ecuador" being transferred to Colombian prisons "so that they can finish serving their sentences closer to their families," explained Vice Minister Umaña.

The measure seeks to alleviate prison overcrowding in Ecuador, whose government estimates an excess of about 3,000 inmates that exceeds the capacity of the prisons. Detention centers have become the epicenter of the wave of drug violence that the country is experiencing.