President Daniel Noboa sounded the “chicharra” to begin work on the Santa Elena prison amid shouts of “We don’t want prison.” The prison will have an area of 12.2 hectares, five pavilions and capacity for 736 people. President Daniel Noboa, the General Director of the SNAI, in the province of Santa Elena. The President of the Republic, Daniel Noboa, pressed a button and a siren sounded.
With that symbolic act he began the construction work of the new Santa Elena detention center, on the morning of June 21, 2024. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on a soccer field in the Juntas del Pacífico commune, Simón Bolívar parish, in the province of Santa Elena. The event took place about five kilometers from the internal point in the mountain, where the prison will be built.
Previously, Noboa said that he and his wife are going through a difficult time, referring to the death of his father-in-law, Furio Valbonesi, for whom he asked for a minute of silence. “However, from the moment I decided to serve our country, I understood that my commitment to you and to our mission must prevail, despite the difficult circumstances that arise,” he said. The event was marked by the protest of community members, 500 meters away, who followed the ceremony from the top of a hill carrying banners shouting: “We don’t want jail.” During his speech, Noboa ratified his fight against corruption and organized crime.
In a defiant tone, he responded to critics of him who have supposedly questioned his mental capacity: “I am crazy for wanting to serve my country, I am crazy for preventing corruption from continuing in Ecuador. I am crazy because I want to give opportunity to our young people who are unemployed and who have no opportunity to study.” Daniel Noboa. And he insisted: “They say I’m crazy too because I risk my life every day.” In a direct attack on what he called the “old Ecuador”, Noboa denounced corruption and the alleged involvement of political leaders with drug trafficking.
The new prison The president emphasized that the construction of the new prison, called “La Cárcel del Encuentro,” is a milestone in the fight against terrorism and the mafias that controlled and held hostage the penitentiary system. “Today we have order with the military, with the police and also with a commander in chief who has the courage to confront them head on,” declared Noboa. This Friday, June 21, 2024, construction of the Encuentro maximum security prison, located in Santa Elena, began.
The structure will have controls and surveillance with artificial intelligence technology and people deprived of liberty (PPL) will be classified according to their degree of danger and sentence. This will be the maximum-security prison in Santa Elena. The investment in the maximum-security prison is USD 52 million and will have a capacity for nearly 800 highly dangerous PPL or those who present a high risk of escape.
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