爆発物搭載無人機で刑務所攻撃、施設上空で撃墜 エクアドル

【キトＡＦＰ＝時事】エクアドル当局は５日、ラロカ刑務所への無人機による攻撃を阻止したと発表した。無人機には爆発物が積まれていた。（写真は爆発物搭載の無人機が上空で撃墜されたラロカ刑務所。屋根への破損が確認できる。エクアドル・グアヤキルで）
　最高度の警備体制を敷くラロカ刑務所には、首都キトにあるメキシコ大使館で身柄を拘束されたホルヘ・グラス元副大統領が収容されている。
　治安当局によると、無人機は施設上空で撃墜された。また、その目的については同刑務所の「無力化」とされた。
　エクアドルでは４月、メキシコ大使館に治安部隊が突入し、保護を求めて逃げ込んでいたグラス元副大統領を拘束。メキシコが国交断絶を発表する事態に発展した。
　エクアドルの刑務所の多くは近年、麻薬カルテルとつながりがあるギャングによって支配されてきたが、ダニエル・ノボア大統領は今年１月、国内は「武力衝突」状態にあると宣言し、刑務所を軍の管理下に置いた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/09/06-20:58）

Ecuadoran officials said they had thwarted an attack Thursday carried out by an explosive-laden drone on La Roca prison, which houses ex-vice president Jorge Glas, arrested in a raid on the Mexican embassy in April.
The drone was intercepted as it flew over the maximum security prison, according to the Security Block -- a unit of police and soldiers fighting drug trafficking.
The drone had been flown with the intent of disabling the prison, which can hold about 100 inmates, the group said in a statement.
Glas was arrested on corruption charges on April 5 at the Mexican embassy in Quito where he had sought refuge. The raid on the embassy by Ecuadoran security forces to capture him prompted a break in diplomatic ties between the two nations.
Last month, Mexico asked that Glas be allowed to go to a safe place in a third country due to his critical health condition.
Ecuador's prisons, many of them taken over by drug gangs, have been under military control since January, when President Daniel Noboa declared a state of internal armed conflict in the government's showdown with organized crime.
That came after a particularly brutal wave of violence in several parts of Ecuador, sparked by the prison escape of one of the country's most powerful crime bosses.
Once considered a bastion of peace in Latin America, Ecuador has been plunged into crisis by the rapid spread of transnational cartels that use its ports -- mainly Guayaquil -- to ship drugs to the United States and Europe.