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New wave of prison violence in Ecuador leaves 58 detainees dead

At least 68 prisoners were killed and more than two dozen were injured during clashes in Ecuador’s Penitenciaria del Litoral on Friday, the country’s government reported on Saturday (13). According to authorities, the violence was characterized as fights between rival gangs.

The penitentiary, located in the southern city of Guayaquil, is the same prison where 119 inmates were killed at the end of September in the worst incident of prison violence ever.

The government blamed disputes between drug gangs for control of prisons for the episode.

Dozens of people were gathered outside the prison awaiting news of their loved ones, of whom many said they had no news. One of them is Cristina Monserrat, 58, who has yet to obtain information about her younger brother, who has been in prison for a year. “What’s going on in there is reprehensible, people are killing themselves and the sad thing is they don’t have a conscience,” Monserrat said. “My brother is alive, my heart tells me that.”

President Guillermo Lasso, added Monserrat, should do more to help the poor. Ecuador’s prison system has been in the spotlight in recent years for overcrowding, poor sanitation and organized crime.

In September, Lasso declared a 60-day state of emergency in the prison system, which freed government funds and allowed military assistance in controlling the prisons. This Saturday, the president asked the constitutional court to allow the military to enter prisons, rather than just providing external security.

Wave of Disturbances

The latest disturbance was caused by a power war between factions following the release of a gang leader, Guayas provincial governor Pablo Arosemena told a news conference earlier in the day.

“The context of this situation is that there was no gang leader in this cell block because a few days ago that prisoner was released,” Arosemena said. “Other cell blocks with other groups wanted control.”

Videos on social media allegedly posted by detainees overnight showed them begging for help to contain the violence as gunfire and explosions sounded in the background. Reuters was unable to independently verify the origin of the videos.

There has been a wave of riots in the country’s prisons, which house some 39,000 detainees, since the December 2020 murder of ‘Rasquina’, the leader of the Los Choneros gang, months after he was released from prison.

His death left a power vacuum, officials said at the time, as lesser-known gangs tried to take control of the country’s prisons. The rivalries are linked to competition for alliances between drug trafficking and international cartels, former officials said.

Authorities said a February incident that killed 79 detainees was a response to Rasquina’s death. Another 22 people died in a July riot.

“We are fighting drug trafficking, criminal gangs fighting each other for territory inside and outside prisons to distribute drugs,” said Governor Arosemena.

Some of those killed in the September violence at the Penitenciaria del Litoral were beheaded or burned, the attorney general’s office said, and dozens were wounded.

In total, 11 people were found hanging in the penitentiary in October, which authorities said may have been suicides.

“I don’t know anything, what we’re asking for are answers,” said Estefânia, who declined to give her last name, and said that her husband is in prison for theft. “I don’t know if he’s alive or dead.”

Reference: CNN Brasil

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