Ecuador: Security forces take over prisons after violence
November 16, 2021
Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso announced on Monday that the police and armed forces will take control of the country's prisons until further notice, after gang violence resulted in 68 deaths over the weekend.
During a press conference, Lasso said that Ecuador faces "a serious external threat from attack of drug-trafficking mafias, the same ones that intend to take control of the detention centers and take away our peace of mind."
Around 1,000 police and military personnel have been deployed to secure the internal and external perimeter at the Guayas 1 prison on the country's Pacific Coast, he said.
Drug smugglers clash over transport routes
At least 68 inmates were killed and 25 were injured following gang violence in the Guayas N1 detention center in the port city of Guayaquil between Friday evening and Saturday.
Authorities say the unrest is due to competing gangs fighting over trafficking routes.
Lasso said efforts were being made to mediate peace between rival gangs, but without the state making concessions to gang leaders.
Ecuador's overcrowded prisons have seen a rise in violence, with more than 320 inmates having been killed so far in 2021. In September, 119 inmates were killed at the prison in Guayaquil during the worst incident of prison violence in Ecuador's recent history. Lasso had imposed a state of emergency twice after incidents of gang violence this year.
Ecuador's Constitutional Court subsequently placed limits on executive intervention, barring soldiers from inside of prisons and authorizing their mobilization among civilians for no more than 30 days.
Thousands more guards needed
The country lies between the world's biggest cocaine producers, Colombia and Peru. It is a popular transit country among drug traffickers because of its porous borders and busy seaports.
The state currently employes 1,500 prison guards to manage its prison population of more than 39,000 people. Experts believe at least another 3,000 guards would need to be hired to alleviate the crisis. Due to widespread corruption, it is easy for inmates to get contraband, including weapons, while behind bars.
tg/dj (dpa, AFP, Reuters)