This year Ecuador entered the list of countries with the most deaths in riots registered in detention centers.
So far this 2021, at the Guayas No.1 Center for the Deprivation of Liberty in Guayaquil, Better known as the Litoral Penitentiary, there have been at least seven events and clashes between inmates that have resulted in crimes against inmates.
In the most recent event, 62 crimes were recorded inside the prison and at least 44 injured.
And among all the prisons nationwide, the troubles between criminal gangs related to drug trafficking, according to the authorities, have led to the death of more than 300 prisoners in the different prisons.
The Government proposes to expand and apply a legal figure that punishes the heads of criminal gangs
With this scenario in which during the massacres the inmates have dismembered and cremated many of their fellow prisoners, Ecuador this year entered the list of countries with the most deaths in riots registered in detention centers.
The Ecuadorian government announced on Monday night the actions with which it will face this prison crisis, after a closed-door meeting that began at noon in the Simón Bolívar room of the Guayas Government.
This year the conflicts that have evidenced the prison crisis began on February 23, when at least 80 inmates were murdered, about twenty of them beheaded, during the simultaneous riots in the Guayas, Azuay and Cotopaxi prisons.
The confrontations took place between gangs that dispute the control of these penitentiaries. In the Azuay prison, 34 inmates were murdered, followed by the 31 dead in prison number 4 in Guayaquil, 6 in the Litoral Penitentiary, and the remaining 9 crimes occurred in the Cotopaxi prison.
On April 28, five inmates were killed and a dozen injured during a riot at the Penitentiary, located in Guayaquil, on the road to Daule.
A little less than three months later, on July 21, 22 inmates were killed in two detention centers; In the Cotopaxi prison there were 14 deaths and another 8 in the Guayas Center for the Deprivation of Liberty No.1.
The situation led the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, to decree a state of emergency for the national prison system.
A little over two months of an apparent truce passed, when on September 28, 118 inmates died and 80 were injured in a riot at the Litoral Penitentiary.
This event led Ecuador to be the fourth country in the region with the most killings during prison riots. The list is led by Honduras, followed by Peru, the Dominican Republic and Brazil.
With weapons and tanks, soldiers are already touring the pavilions, patios and rooftops of the Litoral Penitentiary to try to stop confrontations
On October 14, four prisoners died, they appeared hanged in the Penitentiary under the hypothesis of a suicide.
Nine days later, in the same prison, seven inmates were found hanged in the intimate visiting area.
On November 2, when the country governed the holiday for the Day of the Dead, three prisoners died in clashes between gangs at the Penitentiary. (I)
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
