Ecuadorian prisons: Episodes with 13 dead

Clashes at the large prison in Guayaquil, in southwestern Ecuador, have left at least 13 people dead and 23 others injured. The bloody incident comes two days after incidents at another penitentiary in the Latin American country left 16 dead and more than 40 wounded.

At the Guayas 1 prison in Guayaquil, the second largest city and the main port of the country, it has been confirmed that 13 people were killed and 23 others were injured in the clashes that broke out yesterday Wednesday between food, the prison service (SNAI) announced.

A previous report spoke of five dead. Five policemen are among the injured. They were attacked “with firearms as they intervened to restore order,” said police, who released video showing a wounded officer being led away by colleagues in arms.

Security forces are “continuing their work in the (detention) center,” SNAI said. A force of 900 police and army men was mobilized to quell the rebellion.

According to the Interior Ministry, “control has been regained” at the prison in Guayaquil, where security forces remain.

SNAI explained that some prisoners were injured by “explosives” that had been placed inside the premises of the center, adding that material damage was caused.

The incidents involved inmates in three of Waya 1’s twelve wards, where about 6,900 people are incarcerated.

The new massacre followed the one earlier this week at another prison in the district of the city of Latacunga, some 100 kilometers southeast of the capital Quito.

The ombudsman’s office, an independent body, yesterday expressed “concern” about a new surge in violence in prisons, underlining the need to increase the number of guards.

On Monday and Tuesday, 16 people, including an alleged drug lord, were killed and 43 others injured at the prison in Latacunga. Most of the victims were found dismembered, officials said.

Massacres in Ecuador’s prison system since February 2021 have killed a total of 400 inmates.

From inside the cells, gang members control the drug trade and have become embroiled in a merciless battle for control, inside and outside the prison walls.

In September 2021, 122 inmates died at the Guayaquil detention center. It was one of the worst prison massacres in Latin American history.

Ecuador, with 18 million inhabitants, between Colombia and Peru, the two countries where the largest quantities of cocaine are produced in the world, has become in recent years a hub for the trafficking of the white powder to Europe and the USA and a battleground for gangs. In 2021, authorities announced that 210 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine, were seized, a record amount. In the same year, the homicide rate reached 14 per 100,000 inhabitants, in other words almost doubled compared to 2020.

RES-EMP

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