The government of conservative President Guillermo Lasso attributes the violence in prisons to gang-to-gang fights over territory and drug trafficking routes, Reuters reported.
Last year, 316 prisoners died in riots in prisons across Ecuador.
Police and the armed forces were recovering from the penitentiary, criminal firm SNAI said on Twitter. In the past, he had called the incident a “dispute. “
“Sadly, in the middle so far it is reported that thirteen prisoners have died and two are injured,” the firm said, adding that a final count will be made through the attorney general’s office.
Violence in the Santo Domingo prison in May left another 43 people dead.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has pointed out that the Ecuadorian penal formula is being vitiated both by the abandonment of the State and the absence of a comprehensive policy, and by the deficient situations of the detainees.
The country’s prisons house about 33,900 more people and are 12. 5 percent above their maximum capacity, according to official figures.