Five beheaded among 116 killed in Ecuadorean prison gang war

Ecuador has declared a state of emergency in its prisons after a battle among gang members in a coastal jail in which at least 116 people were killed and 80 were injured.

At least five of the dead were beheaded. Authorities said it was the country’s worst prison bloodbath.

President Guillermo Lasso decreed the emergency on Wednesday, giving the government powers that include stationing police and soldiers inside prisons.

The bloodshed at the Litoral prison in Guayaquil was blamed on gangs linked to international drug cartels fighting for control of the jail.

Mr Lasso said that what happened in the prison was “bad and sad.”

He said he could not guarantee that authorities had regained control of the prison.

“It is regrettable that the prisons are being turned into territories for power disputes by criminal gangs,” he said.

The president said he would act with “absolute firmness” to regain control of Litoral and prevent the violence from spreading to other jails.

Images on social media showed dozens of bodies in the prison and scenes that resembled battlefields. Fighting involved firearms, knives and bombs, officials said. Earlier, regional police commander Fausto Buenano said that bodies were being found in the prison’s pipework.

Outside the prison mortuary, relatives of inmates wept, with some describing the cruelty with which their loved ones were killed, decapitated and dismembered.

“In the history of the country, there has not been an incident similar or close to this one,” said Ledy Zuniga, who was the minister of justice in 2016.

Ms Zuniga said she regretted that steps were not taken to prevent another massacre after deadly prison riots in February.