At least six inmates dead and several injured in prison fights in Ecuador

Ecuadorian prisons are once again the scene of clashes between organized crime groups. At least six inmates have died and another 11 have been injured in a prison in the coastal province of Guayas (southwestern Ecuador), according to the National Comprehensive Care Service for Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI).

The injured people have been evacuated in a timely manner to hospital centers and are out of danger, the SNAI has specified.

According to the SNAI, in view of the clashes between criminal gangs, security protocols were activated in all detention centers nationwide.

It has also been reported that prison security agents are being held by criminal groups in four prisons in other provinces: Cotopaxi number 1, Azuay number 1, Cañar number 2 and El Oro number 1.

“The corresponding actions are being carried out by the security institutions to release them and return to normality”, the entity pointed out and added that “at the moment, the retained servers are in good condition”.

Recurring massacres in Ecuador's prisons

Ecuador's prisons have been the scene of a series of massacres since 2020 in which more than 450 prisoners have been murdered, as a result of clashes between rival gangs that dispute internal control of the detention centers.

To this is added the prison conditions, with overcrowding that can reach 50% of the prison's capacity in some cases.

The situation of violence has also spread to the streets, with organized crime groups fighting for control of drug trafficking routes, especially in the coastal area, where the ports that have made Ecuador one of the main springboards for cocaine reaching North America and Europe are located.

recent hangings

In a recent event, the SNAI reported last Thursday the discovery of the bodies of three inmates, with indications of hanging in two prisons in the coastal zone of Ecuador.

All the deaths were registered in the province of Manabí, located in the center of the continental coast of Ecuador.

The SNAI indicated that, during the cellblock inspection, servers from the Penitentiary Security and Surveillance Corps identified on Wednesday “a suspended body” in the Jipijapa prison, officially known as the Manabí Social Detention Center number 2.

Similarly, in the El Rodeo prison, near the city of Portoviejo and officially called the Manabí Social Detention Center number 4, two other suspended bodies were found.

Given these facts, the prison authorities immediately coordinated with the Prosecutor's Office, the Police and Criminal Investigations for the respective investigations and the removal of the bodies.

In the El Rodeo prison, four other prisoners were already found hanged on July 10, which led the authorities to carry out a general search days later in which 150 weapons, 60 bullet casings and drugs were found in the prisoners' possession.