The Italian Ambassador to Ecuador, Giovanni Davoli, participated in the handing over of 11 drones designed for patrolling and preventing riots inside prisons to the authorities of the Ecuadorian prison system (Snai). The initiative took place at the Cotopaxi prison in Lacatunga.
The unmanned aircraft were acquired by the European Union's programme to strengthen the prison system in the country (Euresp), inaugurated in 2022, executed by the Italian-Latin American Institute (Iila) and directed by an Italian magistrate, Dr Paolo Di Sciuva.
Euresp also installed perimeter video surveillance systems in the Cotopaxi and Azuay penitentiaries, interconnected to local monitoring rooms and centralised control rooms.
Together with the Ambassador, Charles Michel Guerts, head of the EU Delegation in Ecuador, and Dr. Giovanni Tartaglia, legal advisor at the Farnesina and deputy director of the EU programme to support the fight against organised crime in Latin America, El Paccto, were present.
General Zandulbide, Director General of Snai, thanked Italy and the EU for the fundamental contribution that Euresp has provided to the Ecuadorian government in its efforts to regain control of the country's penitentiaries, enabling it to look forward to a future in which prisons are effectively a centre for rehabilitation and reintegration into social life.
Ambassador Davoli evoked Italy's experience in the fight against the Mafia, in which one of the cornerstones was the re-establishment of state control over penitentiary institutions, and confirmed that Italy would continue to support Ecuador in the fight against transnational organised crime.
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