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On Saturday, at least 68 inmates were killed and 25 were injured in a long gunfight inside Ecuador’s largest prison, the Litoral Penitentiary, which had just seen the country’s worst prison bloodbath.
The massacre began before morning inside a prison in Guayaquil’s coastal city, in what officials described as the latest outbreak of conflict between prison gangs tied to international drug traffickers. Bodies, some burned, were seen laying on the ground inside the prison in videos that went viral on social media.
According to officials, the firing lasted around eight hours, and in the afternoon, further conflicts were reported in a section of the facility.
“The situation is managed throughout the penitentiary,” presidential spokesperson Carlos Jijón finally said after dusk. He claimed that 900 police officers were on the scene and had taken command of the situation.
During the initial brawl, convicts “tried to bomb a wall to gain access to Pavilion 2 in order to commit a massacre.” They also set fire to beds in an attempt to suffocate (their opponents) in smoke, according to Pablo Arosemena, the governor of Guayas province.
Arosemena stated, “We are battling against drug trafficking.” “It’s a difficult situation.”
The carnage occurred less than two months after gang fights at the institution, which houses over 8,000 inmates, claimed the lives of 119 individuals.
Drones flown above the chaos revealed that convicts in three pavilions were armed with firearms and explosives, according to police commander Gen. Tanya Varela, who spoke early in the day. Weapons and ammunition are allegedly smuggled into prisons via supply vans and occasionally drones, according to authorities.
The prison violence occurs in the midst of President Guillermo Lasso’s declaration of a national state of emergency in October, which gives security personnel more ability to combat drug trafficking and other crimes.
“The right to life and liberty, which isn’t feasible if security forces can’t act to protect,” Lasso tweeted on Saturday. He was referring to the Constitutional Court’s recent refusal, despite the state of emergency, to allow the military into prisons. Soldiers are currently stationed on the outskirts of the Litoral Zone.
A wave of horrific violence is sweeping Ecuador’s prisons.
Authorities classified the brutal conflict inside Litoral jail, which murdered 119 inmates in late September, as the country’s worst-ever prison massacre. At least five of the victims were beheaded, according to officials. In February of last year, 79 convicts were slain in uprisings around the country. More than 300 inmates have died in fights in Ecuadorian prisons so far this year.
Relatives of convicts gathered outside the prison to hear about their loved ones.
