Fires burn 23,000 hectares; Prison director murder suspect arrested; Prison conditions are ‘deplorable,’ rights group says; Correa, Buekele trade insults

Ecuador’s Risk Management Secretariat reports that 2024 is one of the “worst fire years on record,” with more than 23,000 hectares going up in smoke. Loja Province has suffered the most damage, with 14,600 hectares burned while 4,487 and 3,140 hectares, respectively, have been consumed in Azuay and Pichincha Provinces.

Risk Management reports that some fires continue to burn in the three provinces but are “mostly contained.” It said poor air quality, although improving, continues to be a problem in Loja, Cuenca and Quito, due to smoke

The Risk Management Secretariat reports that Loja and Azuay Provinces have been the hardest-hit by wildfires during one of the worst fire seasons on record.

“As of Sunday, September 15, we are not experiencing any out-of-control fires. We remain on alert due to exceptionally dry conditions throughout the country, especially in the southern intermountain region,” Risk Management reported. “We ask all residents, especially farming interests, to exercise extreme caution to prevent fires. A nationwide ‘no burn’ order remains in effect.”

Prison director murder suspect arrested
The man suspected of killing Guayaquil prison director María Daniela Icaza was arrested Saturday in Pascuales, in Guayas Province. Police have not determined a motive but believe the shooter, identified as David Ordoñez, was associated with a criminal gang.

Icaza was traveling on the Daule highway, north of Guayaquil, when she was intercepted by two men on a motorcycle who fired several shots, killing Icaza and wounding a passenger in her car. The killing has prompted the national prison directorate to consider making it mandatory for prison directors to be escorted by armed guards when they travel outside the prison. Such escorts are currently available on request but Icaza did not ask for one Thursday before she was killed.

Icaza was the third prison director murdered in 2024.

Prison conditions are ‘deplorable,’ rights group says
The Standing Committee on Human Rights claims that prisoners in Ecuador prisons are suffering from hunger and violent treatment. “Conditions throughout the prison system are deplorable, some of the worst in South America,” Billy Navarrete, executive director of the Standing Committee said Friday. He highlighted the case of Esmeraldas prison inmate Javier Gracia, who was hospitalized early last week for severe malnutrition and anemia.

According to Navarrete, most Ecuadorian prisoners are suffering malnutrition as well as mistreatment as a result of military control of prisons imposed in February. “The so-called armed conflict in the country has allowed a military occupation of prisons, and under that regime, the prison population is suffering restrictions on food, medical care and punishment which sometimes amounts to unjustified torture,” he said.

Correa and Bukele trade social media insults
Former president Rafael Correa found himself in another social media brawl last week, this time engaging El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. In a post on X, Correa compared the Salvadoran president with former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, who died on Wednesday. “I remind you that Fujimori was the Bukele of the nineties,” Correa tweeted.

Bukele responded: “Who is this guy? Has anyone ever heard of him?”

Buekele’s questions received more than 4,000 responses. “He is a sad old man, really a ghost, who thinks he is still relevant,” one poster responded. In another response, a tweeter wrote: “He is a fugitive from justice, living in Europe, who spends all his time on social media, trying to make himself sound important. He suffers from incontinence but refuses to wear a diaper.”

Correa responded: “Bad, Nayib, bad. Tell the hating Venezuelan who manages your network not to make you fall for this. You don’t have an enemy here.”

Early last week, Correa and National Assembly President Henry Konfle traded online insults, some of them scatological.