Ecuador declares prison emergency after 116 killed in riot

30 September 2021, 11:34

Women wait for information about relatives who are inmates at Litoral prison in Ecuador following the violence
Ecuador Prison Violence. Picture: PA

Authorities described the incident at a jail in Guayaquil as the worst prison massacre in the country’s history.

Ecuador’s president has declared a state of emergency in the prison system following a battle among gang members in a jail in which at least 116 people were killed and 80 injured.

Officials, who described the incident as the worst prison massacre in the country’s history, said at least five of the dead were found to have been beheaded.

President Guillermo Lasso decreed a state of emergency on Wednesday, giving the government powers to deploy police and soldiers inside prisons.

A relative of an inmate waits for news outside the prison
A relative of an inmate waits for news outside the prison (Angel DeJesus/AP)

The order came a day after violence at the Litoral prison in Guayaquil which officials blamed on gangs linked to international drug cartels fighting for control of the facility.

Mr Lasso, visibly moved by events, said at a news conference that what had happened in the prison was “bad and sad”. He also said he could not guarantee that the authorities had regained control of the jail.

“It is regrettable that the prisons are being turned into territories for power disputes by criminal gangs,” he said, adding that he would act with “absolute firmness” to regain control of the Litoral prison and prevent the violence from spreading to other jails.

Images circulating on social media showed dozens of bodies in the prison’s Pavilions 9 and 10 and scenes that looked like battlefields.

An ambulance leaves the prison following the riot
An ambulance leaves the prison following the riot (Angel DeJesus/AP)

The fighting was with firearms, knives and bombs, officials said.

Earlier, regional police commander Fausto Buenano said that bodies were being found in the prison’s pipelines.

Outside the prison morgue, the relatives of inmates wept, with some describing to reporters the cruelty with which their loved ones were killed, decapitated and dismembered.

“In the history of the country, there has not been an incident similar or close to this one,” said Ledy Zuniga, the former president of Ecuador’s National Rehabilitation Council.

Relatives wait outside outside the prison for news
Relatives wait outside outside the prison for news (Angel DeJesus)

Ms Zuniga, who was also the country’s minister of justice in 2016, said she regretted that steps had not been taken to prevent another massacre following deadly prison riots last February.

Earlier, officials said the violence had erupted from a dispute between the Los Lobos and Los Choneros prison gangs.

Colonel Mario Pazmino, the former director of Ecuador’s military intelligence, said the fighting showed that “transnational organised crime has permeated the structure” of Ecuador’s prisons, adding that Mexico’s Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels operated through local gangs.

“They want to sow fear,” he told The Associated Press, urging the government to temporarily cede control of the prisons to the National Police.

Soldiers guard the entrance to the prison
Soldiers guard the entrance to the prison (Angel DeJesus/AP)

“The more radical and violent the way they murder,” the more they achieve their goal of control, he added.

Ecuador’s president said that care points had been set up for inmates’ relatives with food and psychological support.

He added that a 24 million US dollars (£18 million) programme to address the country’s prisons would be accelerated, starting with investments in infrastructure and technology in the Litoral prison.

The former director of Ecuador’s prison bureau, Fausto Cobo, said that inside jails authorities faced a “threat with power equal to or greater than the state itself”.

Coffins for the bodies of inmates killed in the riot sit on a truck outside the prison morgue
Coffins for the bodies of inmates killed in the riot sit on a truck outside the prison morgue (Angel DeJesus/AP)

He said that while security forces must enter prisons with shields and unarmed, they were met by inmates with high-calibre weapons.

In July, the president decreed another state of emergency in Ecuador’s prison system following several violent episodes that resulted in more than 100 inmates being killed.

Those deaths occurred in various prisons and not in a single facility as in Tuesday’s massacre.

Previously, the bloodiest day occurred in February, when 79 prisoners died in simultaneous riots in three prisons in the country.

In July, 22 more prisoners lost their lives in the Litoral jail, while in September a prison centre was attacked by drones leaving no fatalities.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

Virginia Giuffre

Woman driving Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre during crash that left her with 'four days to live' breaks silence

Exclusive
'Donald Trump has made Putin comfortable,' Mikhail Khodorkovsky has warned

'Trump has made Putin comfortable' despite massive Ukraine war losses, exiled former oligarch tells LBC

The bodies of Andrew Searle and his wife Dawn were discovered by a neighbour.

British couple found dead in south of France home being ‘treated as murder-suicide’

The vehicle was later extinguished after the driver, covered in flames, emerged from the vehicle.

Amsterdam Dam Square car explosion sees driver engulfed in flames - just days after mass stabbing

d

Pictured: US tourist arrested for sailing to remote island and leaving a can of Coke for world's most isolated tribe

The Sentinelese are a pre-Neolithic tribe that rejects contact with the modern world

US tourist arrested for sailing to remote island and leaving a can of Coke for the world's most isolated tribe to try

The Trump administration has been ridiculed after imposing tariffs on uninhabited islands

'No one is safe, not even the penguins': Trump administration ridiculed after imposing tariffs on uninhabited islands

World leaders react to US tariffs

'This is not the act of a friend': World leaders react to Trump's 'unwarranted' tariffs

British couple

British couple found dead in New Zealand named - as police probe possible murder-suicide

Virginia Giuffre said she had been left with 'four days to life' after the crash

Bus driver breaks silence on Virginia Giuffre crash that left her 'with four days to live'

Foreign Secretary David Lammy

David Lammy to urge Nato allies to increase defence spending in bid to make alliance 'stronger, fairer and more lethal'

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

EU threatens further countermeasures against US tariffs after 'major blow to world economy'

Lord Sugar labels Trump tariffs 'a disaster' as Apprentice star teases potential US Presidential meeting

Lord Sugar labels Trump tariffs 'a disaster' and warns that the president 'hasn't thought it through'

Buildings that were destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations in Gaza

Israel expands ground attack on Gaza to seize 'large areas' - despite pleas from hostage families

Police said two people died on Palliser Road, Roseneath.

British couple found dead at home in New Zealand - just months after moving to 'begin new chapter'

Virginia Giuffre warned it was a "very bad situation" after she claimed a school bus ploughed into her car

Virginia Giuffre was charged with breaching restraining order days before crash that 'left her with days to live'