Jose Adolfo "Fito" Macias, one of Ecuador's most feared drug traffickers, became the star of a music video that was recorded from the prison where he is serving a sentence for various crimes. The release of the music track raises questions about prison controls.
A few days after a judge authorized Fito's transfer from a maximum security prison to a regional jail, the alleged leader of Los Choneros (a criminal organization linked to Mexican and Colombian cartels) made an apparent show of power by appearing in a high-quality video highlighting that he "is the boss and owner".
In the video of the track titled "El corrido del León," the convict appears wearing a sombrero, reading a book in an Ecuadorian prison cellblock. He is also shown laughing, greeting a group of people and even petting a fight rooster with a huge gold ring.
The song performed by Mariachi Bravo features a collaboration with the drug trafficker's daughter, who goes by the artistic name of Queen Michelle and usually does songs about her father.
The video appears to have been made with professional equipment due to the quality of the footage, leading some journalists to question how a video crew was able to gain access to the most prominent inmate when the penitentiary system does not usually allow recordings inside prisons.
"It’s impossible that these types of things could happen without the intervention of state forces," opined David Cordero-Heredia, an Ecuadorian lawyer and professor who studies the prison system, according to The Washington Post.
However, so far the National Service of Comprehensive Attention to Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI) has not commented on the matter.
