Death Toll Continues To Rise In Ecuador Prison Riots

DEATH TOLL continues to rise in brutal prison riots across Ecuador

Almost 80 people have now died in the brutal prison riots which have erupted across Ecuador, including 18 prisoners who were found dismembered at one facility. The violence broke out late on Monday night, February 22 in some of the country’s most overcrowded penitentiaries in Cuenca, Guayaquil and Latacunga.

According to Prisons Director Edmundo Moncayo, the riots stemmed from a battle between two rival gangs attempting to obtain “criminal leadership within the detention centres”. According to officials, the death toll has now reached 79, while dozens of other inmates and prison guards have been seriously injured.

‘Thanks to the actions carried out between this institution and the National Police, the situation … is under control,’ authorities said in a statement.

However, on Wednesday, February 24, Patricio Carrillo, head of Ecuador’s national police, tweeted that another mutiny had erupted at the Guayaquil prison and that officers were standing by to enter the facility “with necessary force.”

In a televised address, President Lenin Moreno said:

“What happened yesterday was not causal, it was organised from outside the prisons and internally orchestrated by those who dispute leadership and drug trafficking throughout national territory”.

“What happened yesterday is not a coincidence, it is a consequence,” Moreno added.

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