By Adry Torres
Dauly Mail
Nov 12, 2024
At least 15 inmates died and 14 were injured Tuesday following a fight at Ecuador's largest prison.
The Litoral Penitentiary in the coastal city of Guayaquil has been the site of frequent riots and mass killings, including one in 2021 that left 119 inmates dead.
The National Service of Comprehensive Attention to Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders, which oversees the prison system, said in a statement that detainees were involved in a brawl in one of the jail's cell blocks.
Security forces were able to enter the prison and took control of the facility to 'guarantee security and prevent new incidents.'
The Attorney General's Office said that murder charges were set to be filed against nine inmates.
Security forces guard prisoners who were forced to lie on a courtyard at the Litoral Penitentiary in Ecuador following Tuesday's fight that left at least 15 inmates dead
Police officers walk outside the Litoral Penitentiary, were at least 15 inmates were killed Tuesday following a fight in one of the prison buildings
Images taken inside the prison showed law enforcement officials standing next to the body of a slain prisoner lying on the roof. Shirtless inmates were seen in handcuffs and lying on the ground of a courtyard as law enforcement agents carried out searches.
Aerial video footage showed authorities bringing out dead bodies before they were taken to the medical examiner's office.
The sister of one of the victims told Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo that the death toll could be much higher.
'They threw grenades at them, they decapitated them, they cut them up. The police themselves, while they were there (outside the prison), showed me the videos that show (the bodies) in the upper part; they are all lying there,' she said.
'That is why we came here, because they already said that there are not 17 or anything, there are like 35, 40 dead. That is what they gave information inside (the prison) itself.'
Ecuador's Attorney General's office said murder charges will be filed against nine prisoners
The mass killing is bound to agitate Ecuador's presidential race, where the law-and-order incumbent, Daniel Noboa, has made improving security, including inside detention facilities, a top priority in his bid to seek re-election next year.
Ecuador's prisons have become among the deadliest in Latin America as overcrowding, corruption and weak state control have allowed gangs connected to drug traffickers in Colombia and Mexico to proliferate.
Many are heavily armed with weapons smuggled in from the outside and continue to organize criminal activity from behind bars.
The Litoral Penitentiary currently houses about 10,000 inmates - or double its capacity.
Aerial video footage showed dead bodies outside the prison
A woman talks on her phone as she waits for news of her loved one after at least 15 inmates were killed at the Litoral Penitentiary
A dozen outbreaks of violence in Ecuadorian prisons have left more than 400 people dead since 2001.
The prison violence reflects a deteriorating security situation throughout the Andean nation.
Ecuador registered a record 47 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, up from a rate of six murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018.
President Noboa in January declared a state of emergency and ordered the military to take control of the prisons after gunmen stormed and opened fire in a TV studio and bandits threatened random executions of civilians and security forces.
No comments:
Post a Comment