Ecuador amnesty to cut crowding in prisons

Ecuadora’s President Guillermo Lasso has granted an amnesty to alleviate prison crowding in the country after more than 3,000 people were killed during riots. The move will benefit seriously or terminally ill inmates and those involved in traffic offences that did not cause injury or death, the Communications Ministry said. It was announced after at least 68 people died in clashes between rival gangs linked to drug trafficking at a jail in the city of Guayaquil in which prisoners attacked one another with guns, explosives and machetes. Several massacres have occurred in Ecuador’s jails in the past few years.