- In the recent outbreak of violence among prisoners, 68 people died In an overcrowded prison in Guayaquil.
- As of 2021, violence in Ecuador’s prisons has claimed the lives of more than 320 prisoners.
- Another riot in Guayaquil prison in September resulted in 119 deaths.
The Ecuadorian government said that in the recent violence among prisoners allied with rival gangs, 68 people were killed in the weekend riots, and the head of the Ecuadorian armed forces and prisons resigned on Monday.
The President’s Office said in a statement that President Guillermo Lasso accepted the resignation of the head of the joint command, Lieutenant General Jorge Cabrera, and the head of the SNAI prison facility, Bolivar Garzon.
Over the weekend, in an overcrowded prison in Guayaquil, fighting between prisoners armed with guns, machetes and explosives killed dozens of people before the authorities regained control.
Posts on social media showed terrible images of prisoners beating and setting fire to bleeding bodies.
This year, Ecuador’s violent, dilapidated and overcrowded prison experienced the worst riots in Latin American prison history.
More than 320 prisoners have been killed so far in 2021. Although the Ecuadorian prison system implemented a state of emergency after more deadly fighting in September, recent riots have occurred.
The Presidential Palace stated that Russo agreed to the resignation of Cabrera and Garzon at a meeting with the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Defense, as well as the military and police chiefs on measures to prevent further prison violence.
Watch | Officials say that the recent prison violence in Ecuador has caused 30 deaths
Lasso appointed General Orlando Fuel, commander of the Army, as the new head of the joint command. Marlo Brito, head of the Center for Strategic Intelligence (CIES), succeeded Garzon from SNAI.
In September, another riot in the same prison in southwest Ecuador killed 119 people-the largest such massacre in the country’s history and one of the worst in Latin America.
Ecuador is located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest cocaine producer, and the surge in violence is attributed to the struggle between rival drug groups.
This country of 17.7 million people is favored by traffickers because of its leaky borders, dollarized economy, and major export seaports.
Seizures of drugs (mainly cocaine) reached a record 155 tons between January and October 2021, and so far this year, street crimes and wars between prisoners allied with gangs have killed more than 2,000 people.
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