Scores killed in prison rioting
QUITO: Ecuador yesterday raised the death toll from riots in four jails to 79, including 18 prisoners who were found dismembered at one site.
It is one of the bloodiest outbreaks of prison violence in the country’s history.
Even as authorities said they had regained control following the initial riots, the head of Ecuador’s police said in the evening a new mutiny in Guayaquil’s prison was under way.
Police and troops were stationed at detention centres in the cities of Guayaquil, Cuenca and Latacunga, where gangs on Wednesday fought with handmade weapons in what authorities said was a coordinated outbreak of violence.
Several of Wednesday’s confrontations took place in maximum security areas of the
Guayaquil and Cuenca prisons.
Prison authority SNAI said all those killed in the rioting were prisoners, first reports citing 50 dead, before rising to 79.
A further dozen inmates and police were injured. ‘‘Thanks to the actions carried out between this institution and the national police, the situation . . . is under control,’’ authorities added in a statement.
However, in the Twitter message last night saying a new mutiny in Guayaquil’s prison was under way, the head of Ecuador’s national police said police were preparing to enter again.
SNAI confirmed the new riot. Ecuador’s prosecutor’s office started an investigation, saying it had found 18 dismembered bodies in one of the prisons.
Inmates’ relatives remained outside the prisons yesterday, hoping for information about their loved ones.
In a televised address, President Lenin Moreno acknowledged the prison system was overpopulated by about 30% and was underresourced.