Human rights commission visits Ecuador after prison massacres

Ecuadorian soldiers hold the Coastal Penitentiary Center after another deadly riot in Guayaquil on November 15, 2021. AP - Dolores Ochoa

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1 min

A mission of seven members of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is in Ecuador until Friday, December 3 to investigate the situation of the country's prisons.

After the deaths of 315 detainees in clashes between drug trafficking gangs since the start of the year, the government has accepted the advice of the IACHR to regain control of its prisons.

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With our correspondent in Quito,

After having extended

Monday

, the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, could only confirm to the commission the deep crisis of the entire prison system.

Of

to maintain a semblance of calm and compensate for the lack of prison guards.

There is currently only one guard for 400 detainees and few vocations.

The guards do not control the inside of the prisons

A recent report from the social rehabilitation authorities confirms that prisoners have real control over their cells, which they enter and leave at will.

New prisoners are recruited upon arrival and must choose a gang if they want to be protected.

The guards have

where they are regularly bought or threatened, as well as the members of their families.

Met

After meeting the President of the Republic and his main ministers, Wednesday, December 1 in the morning, and many deputies in the afternoon, the members of the committee visit Thursday, December 2 several of the main prisons in the country.

On Friday, they will meet the main officials of the prosecution and the judiciary before checking the conditions of imprisonment of former vice-president Jorge Glass, convicted of corruption.

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• Ecuador

• Guillermo Lasso