A new surge in prison violence rocked Ecuador for a third day as the government struggled to retake control of the country’s jails. The death toll at a prison in Guayaquil rose to 31.
(Bloomberg) — A new surge in prison violence rocked Ecuador for a third day as the government struggled to retake control of the country’s jails. The death toll at a prison in Guayaquil rose to 31.
President Guillermo Lasso decreed a second 60-day state of emergency for the prison system after imposing a curfew over wide areas of the central Pacific Coast lowlands following Sunday’s murder of Agustin Intriago, mayor of Manta.
The government attributes a surge in violence, including a tripling of the murder rate to more than 25 per 100,000 people over five years, to stronger efforts to combat drug trafficking. Since Lasso took office in mid-2021, police have seized more than 450 tons of cocaine.
While prison riots have killed about 400 inmates since 2020, they had declined in scope and frequency until Sunday. Among steps taken to stem the bloodshed, the government has nearly doubled the number of guards at prisons nationwide.
Additionally, roughly 2,700 police and military have been deployed to regain control of the country’s prisons including in Azogues, Cuenca, Guayaquil, Latacunga, Loja and Tena. The response has succeeded in securing the release of about 130 guards who’d been taken hostage.
Late Tuesday, prosecutor general’s office via Twitter raised the death toll from rioting in a Guayaquil penitentiary as police and soldiers fought to retake control of two warring pavilions.
Prison rioting spread to Esmeraldas, where 17 prison guards and staffers were taken hostage. Among other incidents in the country’s oil export hub, three vehicles were torched and an homemade bomb was defused outside the public prosecutor’s offices, according to a government statement.
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