Ecuador's President Lenín Moreno wrote on Twitter that the three riots were planned and carried out by organized criminals.

The three riots make 2021 the deadliest year in Ecuadorian prisons ever.

The previous deadliest year was 2020, when 51 prisoners were killed in connection with riots, writes the independent news organization Insight Crime and the country's police.

In December alone, 11 prisoners were killed in various riots in prisons in the country.

In an analysis, the same organization writes that riots have increased and mortality has increased in Ecuadorian prisons in the last decade.

This after the state tried to break up the hierarchy that existed in prisons with gang leaders who, among other things, make money from controlling the trade in contraband within the prison walls.

According to the news agency AFP, more than 38,000 people are imprisoned in the 17-million country Ecuador.