At least 90 guards were being held hostage in Ecuadorian prisons on Monday, the day after a clash between inmates killed six, the prison service (SNAI) said.

“Right now, about 90 guards” are holding inmates hostage in five prisons in different provinces, SNAI told the press via WhatsApp.

She added that all her employees are fine.

Inmates in 13 detention centers in the country, where drug-trafficking gang violence has become a scourge in recent years, went on hunger strike yesterday. This protest was developing the previous day in ten of the thirty-six prisons in Ecuador, according to the same source.

The hunger strike began after news of a fresh clash between rival gang members at Guayas 1 prison in the western city of Guayaquil on Sunday left six dead and eleven others injured.

Guayaquil is among the cities most affected by gang violence, having become a drug-trafficking hub.

Ecuador’s prisons have become centers of operations for gangs fighting for control of the drug market and territory. About ten similar clashes inside detention centers since February 2021 have claimed the lives of over 420 detainees. Dozens of them met a gruesome death, burned alive or bled to death after their mutilations.

SNAI ordered on Sunday, after the new episode at Guayas 1, that security measures be strengthened in all prisons, with the help of the police and the army.

According to a recent census, Ecuador’s 36 prisons hold 31,321 people, including 3,245 foreigners, while their nominal capacity is 30,000 places.

Most of those incarcerated are serving sentences for drug trafficking, as Ecuador is among the world’s top cocaine-producing nations, along with Colombia and Peru.