Several dead and injured in a new mutiny in Ecuador

The new revolt that took place early this Sunday in Cuenca prison, in southern Ecuador, left a number of dead and injured not yet specified by the Ecuadorian authorities, who have mobilized 800 police and military personnel to regain control of the prison.

The existence of dead bodies and injuries was confirmed in a statement from the Secretariat for Human Rights, which had mobilized coffins and provided medical care for the wounded and psychological care for the relatives of prisoners outside the prison known as El Turi.

The violent events began around 01.30 local time (06.30 GMT) in circumstances not yet clarified by the authorities and in the midst of detonations and gunfire, as could be heard from outside the prison in recordings broadcast on social networks.

The ministers of the interior, Patricio Carrillo, and of Defense, Luis Hernández, the secretary of human rights, Bernarda Ordóñez, and the director of the National Service for Adults Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), Pablo Ramírez, have moved to the outside of the prison to coordinate emergency actions.

Carrillo tweeted that the government “makes every effort to prevent those who despise life from continuing to incite war in prisons.” He noted that “Ecuador no longer endures irrationality and violence.”

The minister, who took office last Wednesday after the creation of the Interior portfolio to face the rise in violence in the country, considered that there should be legal reforms to sanction the riots in prisons. “We need strong provisions for those who take part in these violent acts. They are identified and must lose all kinds of prison benefits,” he noted.

This revolt is part of the prison crisis that Ecuador has been experiencing since last year, when 316 prisoners died in violent clashes between rival gangs fighting for control of prisons.

In the same prison in El Turi, on the outskirts of Cuenca, capital of the province of Azuay, 33 prisoners were massacred on February 23, 2021, most of them decapitated and dismembered in a simultaneously coordinated attack between rival gangs in several prisons that left 78 dead throughout the country.

In Ecuador's 65 prisons, with capacity for about 30,000 people, there are about 39,000 prisoners (30% overpopulation). Of the total, 15,000 are without sentence.

In addition, the Andean nation has a deficit of 2,500 prison guides. There are currently only 1,646 for the whole country.

In order to reduce prison overcrowding, President Guillermo Lasso signed a decree in February establishing the conditions for approximately 5,000 prisoners to be pardoned.

According to the authorities, violence inside prisons responds to the dispute between gangs linked to international drug trafficking who are fighting for dominance inside and outside prisons.

In a recent report, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) called on the Ecuadorian State to regain control of its prisons and not to abuse pretrial detention, since 40% of Ecuador's more than 36,000 prisoners at the end of 2021 did not have a sentence.

In development...

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