At least 22 detainees have been killed in large-scale fighting in two prisons in Ecuador. Another 59 prisoners were injured. Ecuadorian President Lénin Moreno has declared a state of emergency in the prisons.
Violence broke out local time Wednesday evening at the main prison in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, and at a prison in Latacunga. Nine police officers were also injured in the fighting. The violence is now under control, authorities said.
A police commander described the violence in the penitentiary in Latacunga as “execution”. A large number of detainees tried to break out. According to the police, 78 detainees were re-imprisoned.
drug gangs
According to a former interior minister, the violence is related to a power struggle between drug gangs. They try to organize the drug trade from the prisons.
This is not the first time that prison riots have killed 79 inmates in the country. to by force. Eighteen of them were found beheaded or dismembered.
Ecuadorian prisons are guarded by poorly trained guards and the police can only enter in an emergency. Penitentiary centers are also often overcrowded.
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