Deadly riot breaks out again in Ecuadorian prisons

At least 10 inmates were killed in clashes between rival drug gangs at a prison in Ecuador, the second deadly riot in the country’s jails this week, police said.

The fighting broke out in a prison in the coastal city of Esmeraldas, near the Colombian border.

Police said they found 10 dead prisoners in two cell blocks, adding to the nearly 500 inmates massacred in the country’s prisons since 2021.

Family members gathered outside the prison waiting for news of their relatives.

On Monday, 13 prisoners and a guard were reported killed in a riot in southwest Ecuador.

The country’s overcrowded prisons have become operational centres for organised crime groups.

Ecuador, located between Colombia and Peru, has seen violence spiral in recent years as rival gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels battle for control.

Government data show more than 70 percent of global cocaine exports pass through Ecuador’s ports.

The country’s worst prison massacre took place in 2021 when more than 100 inmates were killed in Guayaquil.

Last year, gang members took dozens of prison guards hostage following the jailbreak of Jose Adolfo Macias, known as "Fito," leader of the Los Choneros gang.

Outside the prisons, allies detonated bombs and held a television presenter at gunpoint live on air.

President Daniel Noboa declared a "state of internal armed conflict" earlier this year, ordering the military to take control of prisons temporarily.

Fito, who had been serving a 34-year sentence for organised crime, drug trafficking and murder, was recaptured in June more than a year after his escape.

Videos had emerged showing him holding lavish parties inside prison, complete with fireworks, before his escape, underscoring the lawlessness inside Ecuador’s penitentiaries.

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Source: TRT