Mutinies broke out on Tuesday (February 23) in three prisons in Ecuador, killing at least 50 prisoners, police said.
"For the moment, the criminal police report 50 deaths among people deprived of their liberty" during disturbances in three prisons, in the port of Guayaquil (southwest) and the Andean cities of Cuenca and Latacunga (south), a reported police on Twitter.
Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno accused "criminal organizations" of being behind these mutinies, which erupted simultaneously.
The authorities "are acting to regain control of the prisons," the head of state added on Twitter.
According to the prosecution, "clashes between criminal gangs" have also left several injured.
"Faced with the concerted action of criminal organizations to provoke violence in the country's penitentiary centers (...), we are taking action to regain control" of the premises, also indicated on Twitter the Minister of the Interior , Patricio Pazmiño.
A state of exception already declared at the end of 2020
In December, mutinies in various prisons following rivalries between criminal organizations, in particular drug traffickers, left eleven prisoners dead and seven injured.
At the end of 2020, a state of emergency for the country's prisons had been decreed for 90 days by President Moreno with the objective of controlling the "mafias" and reducing the violence that plagues detention centers.
In total over the year 2020, violence between detainees caused the death of 51 prisoners.
Since the start of the year, before the unrest on Tuesday, three prisoners had already died in the violence, according to police data.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in order to reduce prison overcrowding, the South American country decided last year to apply alternative sentences for minor offenses.
With AFP
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