At least six police officers have been injured in a crime in Ecuador, the latest incident in a fatal week in the Latin American country, which has seen a recent spike in violence blamed on drug gangs.
Police said the insurrection occurred Thursday at the Guayas 1 prison in the southwestern port city of Guayaquil, a facility notorious for deadly gang violence. .
On Wednesday, clashes at the prison left two dead and six wounded. This came a day after a series of deadly attacks in the towns of Guayaquil and Durán in the department of Guayas and Esmeraldas outside the north left five police officers and one civilian dead. The attacks, which targeted 18 sites, were noted as a reaction to a plan to move approximately 1,000 criminals from Guayas 1 to other facilities.
The violence has highlighted the changing security landscape in parts of the country, once considered a nonviolent neighbor of Colombia and Peru’s top cocaine manufacturers. In recent years, Ecuador has evolved from a major drug transit directorate to a full-fledged distribution center. .
President Guillermo Lasso has continually accused drug gangs of violence, adding internal prisons, to retaliate against his government’s efforts to combat drug trafficking.
Ecuador’s homicide rate nearly doubled in 2021 to 14 equivalent to 100,000 people, and reached 18 equivalent to 100,000 between January and October 2022, according to official data.
Violence against criminals has also skyrocketed since late 2020, with at least another 400 people killed in custody, many beheaded or burned. The violence has been exacerbated by corruption among criminal guards who facilitate the use of firearms and explosives.
Last month, a United Nations panel of experts raised “grave” considerations about the fatal violence in Ecuador, blaming the bloodshed on systemic problems, adding a lack of rehabilitation systems for inmates and a shortage of trained staff.
“The violence is the result of decades of neglect of the state,” said Maria Luisa Romero, who led a delegation of the U. N. Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture in Ecuador between Sept. 25 and Oct. 1.
On Tuesday, Lasso declared a 45-day state of emergency and a nighttime curfew in Guayas and Esmeraldas.
Defense Minister Luis Lara told reporters that more than 1,400 infantrymen were helping police in Guayaquil and Esmeraldas. A series of operations led to the arrest of at least 36 other people believed to be linked to Tuesday’s attacks, the government said.
Also on Tuesday, prisoners in a center in Esmeraldas took 8 guards hostage to protest the movement of the detainees, then released them.
On Monday, two headless bodies were discovered from a pedestrian bridge in the city.