Violence in Ecuador’s prisons, where drug gangs vie for power, is perpetrated with knives and rarely leads to beheadings. The unrest has left more than 400 dead since February 2021.
“There is a new incident” in the Latacunga prison in central Ecuador, about a hundred kilometers southeast of Quito, the SNAI criminal authority told reporters.
The penal authority had to send tactical teams to repair after Monday’s insurrection left at least 15 dead and 33 wounded.
The SNAI said the peak of recent clashes took place in a medium-security component that houses 4,300 inmates and is one of the largest in the country.
The authority said “detonations” were heard that police were “containing” the detainees. No deaths have been reported.
Administrators have been evacuated from the prison, SNAI said.
After Monday’s massacre, the relatives involved waited outside the offender on Tuesday in hopes of getting information about their loved ones.
“I’m for my brother Carlos Bravo. Je arrived at 6 a. m. ,” a tearful woman who did not give her call told AFP.
“They told me to come and get my brother. I don’t know anything, there is no list (of the dead), they told me nothing. “
A force of six hundred police and the army entered the criminal on Monday in an attempt to recover from the rioters, the government said.
Monday’s insurrection reportedly triggered the killing of Leandro Norero, a 36-year-old alleged drug trafficker known as “El Patrón. “
Norero, who had one of the leaders of a detainee organization, was arrested last May for allegations of money laundering, in an operation in which 6. 4 million dollars, 24 gold bars, firearms and ammunition would have been seized.
“As far as we know, the victims would be Leandro Norero,” said SNAI Deputy Director Jorge Flores.
The Labor Prosecutor’s Office said on Twitter that it is running to identify the dead.
GK’s online page said it broke out on Monday after an attack “on Norero and his safety, at least six prisoners,” bringing up unidentified detainees.
Norero, who was also wanted across Peru, allegedly a member of the Los Chone Killers gang.
Other gangs such as Los Choneros, Los Lobos and Los Tiguerones also have a presence in Ecuador’s penal system, from where gang leaders handle drug trafficking.
Norero’s killing could cause more clashes, the Interior Ministry said, adding that “we must be careful. “
The country’s overcrowded prisons hold an estimated 35,000 inmates, many of whom are members of drug-related gangs.
A government committee said in April that Ecuadorian prisons “are warehouses for human beings and torture centers. “
Bordering Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest cocaine producers, Ecuador serves as a port of departure for drug shipments, mainly to the United States and Europe.
In order to know the situation of Ecuadorian prisons, President Guillermo Lasso presented a census of detainees in August.
In a television interview Monday, he presented “a message of condolences and solidarity to the families of those who died today in (the prison). “