About 75 detainees died in Ecuador on Tuesday in a chain of violent clashes in three prisons, attributed by authorities to a dispute between two gangs over prison control.
The latest official figures from the Detention Service (SNAI) are 75 deaths.
In the Turi prison in Cuenca, about 470 kilometers south of the Ecuadorian capital, 33 detainees died, while another 34 died in Guayaquil prison and another 8 in Cotopaxi prison, about 80 kilometers away.
The number of injured is dozens, but there are no confirmed figures, because until dusk, ambulances continued to enter prisons to remove the wounded and dead, Efe found in Guayaquil prison.
TRIGGERS
At a press conference in Quito, the head of prisons, Edmundo Moncayo, attributed the riots between at least two criminal gangs challenging prison control, which is probably due to the vacuum that was generated after the December assassination last year. a released detainee, José Luis Zambrano, alias “Rasquiña”.
The alleged head of a dreaded organization known as “Los choneros”, “Rasquiña” was assassinated in the coastal town of Manta, which would have aroused the ambition to take power from other criminal gangs in prisons.
“We expected an immediate reaction, but the reaction has been delayed and is what happened today between two groups trying to find criminal leadership,” Moncayo explained.
The battle took place in parallel in the three prisons, which concentrate, according to the official, “70%” of the population of prisons across the country, where there are about 60 prisons.
In his preliminary report, he also pointed out that the riots took place after a search carried out the day before by prison staff, who found firearms that were probably intended to attack the leaders of one of the gangs in dispute. .
“We are working to determine whether our hypothesis has strong premises that help the Prosecutor’s Office to have as much information as possible, which allows us to bring those who designed this action to the orders of the judicial authorities,” said Moncayo.
CONTROLLED SITUATION
The situation in the three prisons, in Cuenca, Guayaquil and Cotopaxi, was already controlled in the afternoon with the help of police and military reinforcements, although relatives of some of the prisoners concentrated at the gates of one of them assured that “the crimes continued”.
In the one in Guayaquil, Efe found dramatic scenes of fathers, mothers and brothers who had come to check the status of their close relatives.
“Where is my son, where is my son?” A woman was screaming as she cried out, hugging a relative.
Dozens of people showed up this afternoon at the gates of that penitentiary, under the watchful eye of the military forces deployed to control the situation, and while ambulances entered and left with bodies and wounded.
To the drama, due to the large number of deaths and injuries during the day, were added numerous videos broadcast on social networks, and even official information about the brutality of the clashes between gangs.
According to one of the police agencies, up to 20 people were beheaded, Ecuavisa television reported on its website.
However, there are no deaths among police officers or prison guards, although there are an undetermined number of injured, Moncayo confirmed.
In the morning, during the program “In front of the President”, the Ecuadorian President, Lenín Moreno, indicated that he authorized “the progressive use of force to ensure the safety of citizens in a state of isolation.”
IT’S NOT THE FIRST HOUR
Prison riots in Ecuador are not a new phenomenon, and cases arise from time to time for all sorts of reasons.
Last August, Moreno declared a state of emergency in the country’s penitentiary system, in the face of what he defined as “chaos” generated by “mafias” inside prisons.
A fight between detainees at the Cotopaxi maximum security prison, near the Andean city of Latacunga, left two convicts dead at the time.
On August 3, 2020, another nine deaths were reported, including two cremated, six injured police officers and another 20 injured detainees after gang scores were established in Guayaquil Prison.
Similar episodes were recorded in 2019, which forced the Government to declare a state of emergency in the penitentiary system, with various measures aimed at reducing overcrowding and combating violence in prisons.