Twelve dead, four injured and at least seven escaped prisoners left a new confrontation between rival gangs in the Litoral Penitentiary, in Guayaquil, the largest and most populous prison in Ecuador.
The new clashes began yesterday afternoon and lasted until night, so the authorities postponed the entrance to the complex until today to “lift the bodies” and assess the consequences.
The National Comprehensive Care Service for Prisoners (SNAI), in charge of the prisons, confirmed 12 deaths, the result of fights in pavilions 3, 5, 8 and 9 of the prison between members of the Los Lobos, Los Tiguerones gangs. and Los Choneros.
“The center is currently under control. However, the security institutions continue with the intervention work. Due to the events recorded, the procedures and verification procedures will be maintained during the following hours and the officialization of the data is expected. with the Prosecutor’s Office, as provided by the regulations,” said the SNAI.
The number of victims, it is estimated, could change. The Europa Press agency raises the death toll to 13.
With the first alert of the clashes, the SNAI reported that the administrative, health and construction personnel were evacuated by the authorities.
The agency pointed out that the confrontations were with firearms and reported aerial images in which five bodies can be seen lying on the floor of the penitentiary, the scene of the worst prison massacres recorded in Ecuador since February 2021.
Late at night police and military retook control of the jail, which houses some 6,800 people and is part of a large prison complex in Guayaquil.
Last Tuesday six inmates from pavilion 5 were found hanging in their cells.
And a day later, three prison guards died after being shot during their lunch in front of the prison.
“We are not unaware that it exists and we are in the worst moment of the crisis of violence in the country,” Defense Minister Juan Zapata said last night in an interview with Teleamazonas.
The drug gangs fight blood and fire over the drug business and use prisons as centers of operations.
According to Zapata, Ecuador has “more than 13 Organized Crime Groups (GDO)”, linked to Mexican cartels such as the one in Sinaloa.
The issue of security and prisons has become one of the central problems for the administration of Guillermo Lasso, who, among other measures, has already ordered a state of emergency several times in some districts, multiplied the number of police officers in some cities, modified protocols and systems security and transfers the gang leaders to other prisons.
Source: Ambito
