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Soldiers in front of a prison in the city of Guayaquil
Photo: Juan Diego Montenegro / EPA
Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso pardons inmates to reduce the number of inmates in overcrowded prisons.
Accordingly, prisoners who are seriously or terminally ill and those who were involved in traffic offenses that did not result in injury or death are released.
This was announced by the Ministry of Communications.
It is not known how many prisoners benefit from the pardon.
Most recently, at least 68 people were killed in bloody clashes between rival gangs in a prison in the city of Guayaquil.
The inmates attacked each other with firearms, machetes and explosives.
Ecuador hub for drug smuggling
With its location between the major drug producers Colombia and Peru, Ecuador is an important hub for drug smuggling to the US and Europe.
Guayaquil in southwest Ecuador is the country's most important port city.
It is considered to be the central hub for the cocaine trade.
The pardons are part of a government plan to combat prison violence stemming from disputes between criminal gangs over drug trafficking.
The government's plan also provides for the use of the armed forces and police to maintain order in the prisons.
Ecuador's prisons have been the scene of several massacres, including a September riot - one of the worst in Latin American history - in which 119 prisoners were killed.
"Ecuador is seriously threatened by the drug mafia attack," Lasso said recently.
"She's trying to take control of the country's prisons and rob us of the peace and quiet on the streets."
Ecuador has 65 prisons with a capacity of 30,000 places, but they house almost 39,000 prisoners.
Among them are 15,000 who have not yet been convicted.
as / AFP
