Gun battle among Ecuador prisoners leaves dozens dead

QUITO, Ecuador — A prolonged gun battle between rival gangs inside Ecuador’s largest prison left at least 68 inmates dead and 25 wounded Saturday, while authorities said it took most of the day to regain control at the Litoral penitentiary, which just weeks ago saw the country’s worst prison bloodbath.

The killing erupted before dawn at the prison in the coastal city of Guayaquil in what officials said was the latest outbreak of fighting among prison gangs linked to international drug cartels. Videos circulating on social media showed bodies, some burned, lying on the ground inside the prison.

The shooting lasted around eight hours, officials said, and then new clashes were reported in part of the prison in the afternoon.

Presidential spokesman Carlos Jijón announced after nightfall that “the situation is controlled throughout the penitentiary.” He said about 900 police officers had taken control.

In the initial fighting, inmates “tried to dynamite a wall to get into Pavilion 2 to carry out a massacre. They also burned mattresses to try to drown [their rivals] in smoke,” said Gov. Pablo Arosemena of Guayas, the province where Guayaquil is located.

“We are fighting against drug trafficking,” Arosemena said. “It is very hard.”

Police commander Gen. Tanya Varela said early in the day that drones flown over the chaos revealed that inmates in three pavilions were armed with guns and explosives. Authorities have said that weapons and ammunition are smuggled in to prisoners through vehicles that deliver supplies and sometimes by drones.

The prison violence comes amid a national state of emergency decreed by President Guillermo Lasso in October that empowers security forces to fight drug trafficking and other crimes.

On Saturday, Lasso tweeted that “the first right that we should guarantee should be the right to life and liberty, which isn’t possible if security forces can’t act to protect.” He was referring to the Ecuador Constitutional

Court’s recent refusal to allow the military into prisons despite the state of emergency. On Saturday, soldiers were outside the Litoral.

Ecuador’s penitentiaries are seeing a wave of brutal violence.

In late September, a battle among gang members in Litoral prison killed 119 inmates in what authorities described as the South American country’s worstever prison massacre. Officials said at least five of the dead were beheaded. In February, 79 inmates were killed in simultaneous riots in various prisons. So far this year, more than 300 prisoners have died in clashes in penitentiaries across the country.

Outside the Litoral prison Saturday, relatives of inmates gathered for news about their loved ones.

“Enough of this. When will they stop the killing? This is a prison, not a slaughterhouse. They are human beings,” said Francisca Chancay, 55, whose brother has been in the prison for eight months.

Ecuador has about 40,000 inmates in its penitentiary system, which is far above the capacity of 30,000. Of this total, 15,000 have not been sentenced.