Ecuador government asserts that the country’s prisons are “under control”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Ecuador’s Minister of Government, Alexandra Vela, together with the general commander of the Police, Tannya Varela, have assured that the situation in the country’s prison system is “under control” after several riots broke out in Ecuadorian prisons last week, leaving at least 118 dead and several wounded.

To bring normality back to the prisons, the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, decreed on Wednesday a state of emergency in the entire prison system based on the “serious internal commotion”, a measure that will be in force for 60 days.

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Around 3,000 members of the National Police and Armed Forces are deployed in the affected prisons to ensure order, as reported by the local newspaper “La Hora”.

“It is the first time since 2019, when the first prison crisis occurred, that the two institutions are working together acting under the basis of the state of emergency decreed by the President,” said the minister.

The Penitenciaría del Litoral de Guayaquil experienced two riots last Tuesday in which firearms were used. Security forces confirmed 118 deaths and more than 80 wounded and confiscated a rifle, a pistol, 102 rounds of ammunition, and 18 bladed weapons, as well as drugs and other prohibited objects.

Prison authorities attributed the reason for this event to a conflict between rival gangs for control of the prison.

In this context, this Saturday, there have been new incidents in the regional prison of Guayaquil located a few meters from the Penitenciaría del Litoral, where the massacre took place. A column of smoke and the sound of gunfire alerted the authorities of the incidents in the vicinity of the Zonal 8 Deprivation of Liberty Center in Guayaquil.

Relatives of the prisoners have reported that around 8:00 AM a solid military contingent and ten tanks entered the prison, followed by the detonation of smoke bombs and shooting.

From outside the prison, it was possible to see prisoners perched on the facilities’ roofs and stretcher movements. According to military sources quoted by the newspaper ‘El Comercio’, an injured policeman has been evacuated by ambulance.

“We are going to use all the options that the law gives us to confront criminal organizations in this fight,” said Minister Vela when advising this Sunday that the National Police will hand over all the information about the massacre in the Litoral penitentiary to the Prosecutor’s Office.

With the latest confirmed casualties, more than 200 people have now died in the country’s seven prisons so far this year, with one of the largest massacres occurring on February 23 at the Libertad Zonal 8 and Sierra Centro Norte prisons in Cotopaxi province and in Cuenca, Azuay province, which left 80 inmates dead.