QUITO (AP) — TThree dead inmates and six others injured left a riot in a regional prison in Guayaquil, that was not returned to the control of law enforcement until Thursday morning, in the middle of the attempts by the Ecuadorian government to regain control of the prison system.
The National Service for Comprehensive Care of Adults Deprived of Liberty, the entity responsible for the prison system, later updated the figures in a statement, once the prisoners had been counted, and raised the number of dead from two to three, as well as the number of wounded from four to six.
They are all internal. She did not offer details about how the three inmates died.
The riot in the largest and most dangerous prison in the country occurred despite the fact that the facility is under the control of the Armed Forces and the police and despite the fact that the country is under a state of emergency due to the recent violence by illegal groups.
The confrontation occurred on Wednesday night when, according to videos broadcast by national media and taken from inside the prison, inmates set mattresses on fire amid screams and apparent detonations of firearms. On Thursday andThe facility had strong military and police security and the presence of relatives of the prisoners outside demanding information.
Prison authorities added Thursday that Five of the injured returned to prison after being treated, except one who remains in a nursing home, whose situation was not detailed. Furthermore, he identified the two alleged instigators of the confrontation as Ronal G. and Stallin G. and assured that they will be “prosecuted for the crime of terrorism.”
“Control has already been taken and what we are doing is verifying the situation of the injured,” the police commander of Zone 8, which includes Guayaquil, General Víctor Herrera, told The Associated Press earlier. Herrera assured that it is still being verified whether the prisoners died from gunshot wounds or stab wounds.
Asked which group caused the riots and the reason, he recalled that In that prison, inmates belonging to the so-called Los Choneros gang have predominated, led by drug trafficking kingpin Adolfo Macías, alias “Fito,” who escaped from that prison in January.
“The reason is dissatisfaction with the police and military presence”commented the commander. Earlier, the Vice Minister of Security, Lyonel Calderón, told the Teleamazonas television channel that the events “They are attempts to destabilize democracy” and a consequence of the government’s actions to repel criminal acts directed by organized crime from prisons.
The Armed Forces in prison
In the early hours of the morning, the Armed Forces released images of the prison on their social network account which is replicated every time an intervention occurs in a prison. Thes searches in search of weapons, ammunition, explosives, drugs and all series of prohibited items are permanent.
4,302 prisoners are held in that prison and it has capacity for 4,505, according to information from the governing body of the penitentiary system.
After the escape of alias “Fito”, which unleashed a wave of violence including the takeover of a live television channel by armed individuals, President Daniel Noboa decreed a state of emergency and internal armed conflict and identified 22 organized crime groups as “terrorists” and turned them into “military targets.” The prison crisis and the wave of violence in the Andean country has worsened since 2021, when bloody clashes broke out that have left nearly 500 inmates murdered to date.