Prisoners die as rival gangs clash in Ecuador

Rival drug gangs took part in a prolonged gun battle that left 68 inmates dead and two dozen more injured at an Ecuadorean prison in the coastal city of Guayaquil, police said Saturday.

Authorities said police had regained control of the prison after hours of fighting among inmates with guns, explosives and machetes.

But a spokesperson for the president said on Saturday evening that inmates were attacking each other again.

"The government must report that new incidents are now occurring" in the prison in Guayaquil, spokesman Carlos Jijon said.

Pablo Arosemena, governor of the province of Guayas, where Guayaquil is located, condemned "the level of savagery, the level of inhumanity" that led to the deaths. He blamed the violence on gangs vying for control over the prisons.

The clashes occurred at the Litoral Penitentiary, where 119 prisoners died in a September riot.

What do we know about the prison violence?

At around 7 p.m. on Friday (local time, 0000 GMT/UTC), prisoners used explosives to try to blow up a wall to a different section of the prison, firing gunshots as they moved through the cells. "They also burned mattresses to try to drown (their rivals) in smoke,'' said Arosemena.

"The context of this situation is that there was no leader of the gang that has this cell block because a few days ago that prisoner was released," Arosemena said. "Other cell blocks with other groups wanted to control them, get inside and have a total massacre."

Armed police in riot gear moved in to quell the unrest and "saved lives," Arosemena added.

Police officers were forced to climb the blood-stained prison walls, as the body of one of the victims lay on the roof encircled in barbed wire. They used drones to try to secure the area.

"These events are the result of a territorial dispute between criminal gangs inside the penitentiary," police commander General Tannya Varela said.

Outside the prison, inmates' relatives waited to find out if their family members were hurt or killed.

How serious is the unrest in Ecuador's prisons?

Violence has been rife in Ecuador's prisons, which house some 39,000 people, since the December 2020 killing of "Rasquina," the leader of the Los Choneros gang, months after he was released from prison.

A February riot that killed 79 detainees was a response to Rasquina's death. Another 22 people died in a July riot.

Police crackdowns have done little to quell the unrest at prisons in Ecuador, with Ecuadorean President Guillermo Lasso declaring a 60-day state of emergency after the September massacre.

Lasso named a new defense minister to try to rectify the prison crisis.

"We are fighting against drug trafficking, against criminal gangs who fight each other for territory inside and outside prisons to distribute drugs," Arosemena said.

Arosemena said authorities will now grant "more than 1,000 pardons" to deal with prison overcrowding. The Guayas 1 Prison is 60% over its population limit of 5,000 inmates.

He also said that the US, Israel and Spain would be sending aid to help the government acquire scanners to prevent the entry of weapons into the facility.

sri, jc/sms (AFP, AP, Reuters)