Ecuador: More than 75 dead in mutinies in prisons

Simultaneous riots - violent clashes broke out in several prisons in Ecuador.

There are dead.

Apparently it is a concerted action.

Guayaquil - At least 75 inmates were killed and several others injured in outbreaks of violence in three prisons in Ecuador.

This was announced by the prison administration of the South American country on Tuesday.

According to the authorities, the bloody revolts at the same time were due to rivalries between drug gangs operating inside the prisons.

34 prisoners were killed in a prison in the port city of Guayaquil, another 33 in the city of Cuenca and eight in Latacunga.

In a previous interim balance sheet by the prison authorities, there were still 62 dead.

According to the head of the authorities, Edmundo Moncayo, there were no deaths among the guards.

But several police officers were injured.

By the evening (local time) guards and police had brought the situation in the three prisons back under control, as the AFP news agency learned from prison authorities.

Soldiers were posted in front of the three detention centers.

"Criminal organizations are simultaneously carrying out violent actions in a number of prisons," wrote President Lenín Moreno on Twitter, as reported by the dpa news agency.

"The police and the Interior Ministry are working to regain control of the prisons in Guayaquil, Cuenca and Latacunga." 

Dead in prison mutiny in Ecuador - "agreed action by criminals"

Interior Minister Patricio Pazmino described the outbreaks of violence as the result of an "agreed action by criminals".

According to the prison authorities, several gangs are fighting for supremacy in the drug trade within the detention centers.

Moncayo said two firearms were confiscated at the Guayaquil detention center on Monday and were intended to be used to kill a gang leader.

Daniela Soria, the wife of a prisoner in Guayaquil, said, “It's like a market in there.

There is everything: drugs, guns, even small dogs.

Everything is sold. "

Soria was among a group of around 40 women who had gathered outside the Guayaquil prison to find out what happened to their husbands during the revolt.

They demanded a list of names of the dead.

The Ecuadorian prisons are completely overcrowded and at the same time suffer from a blatant lack of guards.

Revolts and bloody fights between prisoners happen again and again.

According to the police, 51 people were killed last year.

(ml)

AFP

At the beginning of the corona pandemic, the coronavirus got out of control in the South American country.