“State of emergency” on prisons Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso on Thursday called for “restoration of order” after violent episodes which occurred. According to the latest official report, 22 people lost their lives and about 60 others were injured.
According to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency, from the province of Kotopaxi (central), where most of the detainees were killed, President Lasso announced that it was declaring a “state of emergency in the penitentiary system in order to mobilize all the necessary human and financial resources to restore order” in the prisons.
“We will begin a process of complete restructuring of the prison system,” added the head of state, who replaced the head of the prison service with a military man.
“I want to say to the mafias that seek to threaten this country that they are wrong if they think that this government will look as weak as the previous ones,” said President Lasso.
He announced that from now on access to the prisons will be controlled by the army, while the police will guard their interior. Until now, the security of penitentiaries has been guaranteed by civil servants.
Earlier in the day, the prison service suspended some activities “that could endanger the inmate population and officials” of the penitentiary system. According to a source close to the service, the visits were suspended in some prisons.
Conflicts
In February, 79 prisoners were killed in a single day in clashes between gangs seeking control of the largest penitentiary in the Andean country. Those episodes were marked by horrific scenes, with decapitated corpses, and revealed the power of drug-trafficking gangs in prisons, where the problem of overcrowding is acute.
According to Cotopaxi Governor Osvaldo Coronel, on Wednesday the rioters “used large-caliber weapons and explosives that caused extensive damage inside the detention center.”
In addition, prisoners were able to escape yesterday morning. Seventy-eight of them have been arrested by police, but it is not yet clear how many are still at large.
Prisons
THE Equator has about 60 prisons with a nominal capacity of 29,000 places. But the surplus inmates are around 30%, as the total number of inmates is 38,000 and is guarded by about 1,500 guards and, according to experts, at least 4,000 would be needed to exercise effective control.
According to the Ombudsman, an independent public authority responsible for the defense of human rights, in 2020 “103 murders” were committed in the prisons of Ecuador.
To address the recurring problem of violent prison incidents, former President Lenin Moreno, who was replaced by Guillermo Lasso in May, has repeatedly declared a state of emergency, especially in February for three months.
After the outbreak of the new coronavirus, the Ecuadorian authorities resorted to alternative sentences for less serious criminal offenses and misdemeanors in order to reduce the number of inmates; .
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