The riot that broke out last Wednesday night in a prison in Guayaquil — from which the leader of a powerful gang known by the nickname “Fito”, the number 1 public danger in Ecuador escaped in January — resulted in the loss of at least one person’s life and four others were injured, the authorities announced yesterday Thursday.

“The situation reported (…) is the following: four injured, one dead,” Security Undersecretary Lionel Calderon told the Teleamazonas network, without specifying whether the victims included members of the security forces.

He said a “full” audit of “the entire detention center” was under way, assuring that things at the prison were “absolutely under control”.

Videos posted on social media showed inmates setting mattresses on fire and complaining of mistreatment at the prison, whose control has been handed over to the military. In one of the videos, a prisoner can be heard complaining: “They want to kill us.”

The leader of the country’s most powerful gang, Jose Adolfo Macia, or “Fito”, escaped from the prison of Guayaquil (southwest) on January 7th. It remains elusive at this stage.

He was serving a 34-year sentence for participation in organized crime, drug trafficking and murder.

“Fito’s” escape was followed by riots in several Ecuadorian prisons and an upsurge in gang violence on the streets — bomb blasts, murders, and even masked gunmen storming a television studio during a live broadcast.

To bring the situation under control, Ecuador’s right-wing president Noboa declared a state of emergency and “war” on gangs, deploying 20,000 members of the armed forces inside.

Once an oasis of peace and tranquility in Latin America, Ecuador, between Colombia and Peru, the two countries with the largest cocaine production in the world, has been torn apart in recent years by a wave of gang violence vying for control of trafficking routes and prisons.