Ecuadorian prison riot leaves 24 dead

At least 24 people have been killed in a prison riot in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil that has left dozens injured, according to reports from Reuters.

The incident took place at the Penitenciaria del Litoral in Guayas province on Tuesday, a facility that has in recent months witnessed bloody fights between gangs for control of the prison.

A police and military operation managed to regain control of the Guayaquil Regional prison after five hours, according to a statement from Ecuador’s prison service.

Guayas state Governor Pablo Arosemena said at a news conference on Tuesday outside the Litoral prison that order had been restored. “The presence of the state and the law must be felt,” he said.

The riot involved gunfire, knives and explosions was caused by a dispute between the “Los Lobos” and “Los Choneros” prison gangs.

“An alert was activated in the Center for the Deprivation of Liberty Guayas N1 due gunshots and explosions in several areas,” state prison agency SNAI said in a statement. “As a result of the confrontation, 24 prisoners died and 48 suffered injuries.”

The regional police commander, General Fausto Buenano, said that toll included prisoners shot to death and killed by detonating hand grenades.

The prison system of Ecuador has become a battleground between prisoners linked to Mexican drug gangs, mainly the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels.

Guayaquil, Ecuador’s main port city, is a main hub for shipping South American cocaine to points north, especially the United States.

Last week, police confiscated two pistols, a revolver, some 500 rounds of ammunition, a hand grenade, several knives, two sticks of dynamite and homemade explosives at one of the Guayaquil prisons.

The prison system has about 60 facilities designed for 29,000 inmates but is burdened by overcrowding and staffing shortages.

The country’s human rights ombudsman said there were 103 killings in prisons in 2020.

This is the third prison riot in the country. The first being in February which claimed the lives of 79 people and July, which killed 21.