According to police, at least 68 inmates were killed in renewed clashes in a prison in Ecuador. At least 25 other inmates were injured, according to the authorities on Saturday. The fighting between prisoners in the port city of Guayaquil began on Friday. The police have “saved lives” by intervening, said the governor of the province of Guayas, Pablo Arosemena.
SN/APA/AFP/FERNANDO MENDEZ
Military police outside the Guayaquil prison
In the chronically overcrowded Ecuadorian prisons, clashes occur again and again between members of gangs connected to Mexican drug cartels. With its location between the major drug producers Colombia and Peru, Ecuador is an important hub for drug smuggling to the US and Europe. Guayaquil in southwest Ecuador is the country’s most important port city. It is considered to be the central hub for the cocaine trade.
In Ecuador there have been repeated violent clashes in prisons over the past few months. In September, 118 prisoners were killed in bloody gang fighting in the Guayas N1 detention center. It was the worst massacre in the Ecuadorian penal system to date.
A total of 21 people died in riots in prisons in Cotopaxi and Guayaquil in July. In February, 79 people were killed in violent clashes between rival gangs in several prisons.
Retrieved on November 13, 2021 at 7:51 am on https://www.sn.at/panorama/international/mindest-68-tote-bei-kaempfen-in-gefaengnis-in-ecuador-112407559