At least 43 prisoners died in clashes between rival gangs on Monday (May 9) in Bellavista prison, in the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas in Ecuador, the attorney general's office announced on its Twitter account.

For his part, the Minister of the Interior, Patricio Carrillo, had mentioned 41 deaths during a press conference.

"Thirteen people have been hospitalized, several of whom are seriously injured, it is possible that the number (of deaths) will increase," he commented.

On the spot, wounded with facial wounds were taken care of by ambulances and relatives of detainees crowded around the penitentiary center to try to obtain information, AFP noted.

According to the Ecuadorian police chief, "the attackers acted with great cruelty", while the violence was followed by a mass escape.

If the authorities gave no figure on the total number of escapees, 112 of them could be "recaptured", but 108 were still "missing" Monday afternoon, according to the head of the police, General Fausto Salinas.

"250 police, 200 soldiers and additional reinforcements are on the way", he detailed.

Gang 'massacre' described

"This is the regrettable result of gang violence," President Guillermo Lasso, on tour in Israel, said on Twitter.

He sent his "sincere condolences to the families" of those who died.

Mi más sentido pésame a los familiares y seres queridos de los fallecidos en el amotinamiento en la cárcel de Sto.

Domingo.

This is a lamentable result of violence between bands.

El ministro del Interior @CarrilloRosero está a cargo de los operativos para recuperar la paz.

— Guillermo Lasso (@LassoGuillermo) May 9, 2022

The clashes between members of two rival gangs, the "Wolves" and the "R7", broke out around 3 a.m., said the minister, causing the triggering of "security protocols" to contain "disorders "in the jail.

“The majority of the victims, if not almost 100%, were killed with knives, not with firearms”, and “their mutilated corpses left behind”.

"They were executed in the common rooms, in the cells", then "there was a massive escape attempt" with the use of firearms, recognized Patricio Carrillo.

"Those who are allowed to move between the different blocks within the prison are probably those who are behind this massacre," he said, referring to a "scenario identical to that of April 28 in the prison of El Turi, where members of the 'Wolves' had previously faced 'R7'".

Some twenty prisoners had died there, again most of them mutilated with knives.

Government inaction castigated

Clashes, often extremely violent, are recurrent in Ecuadorian prisons, where nearly 350 inmates have died since February 2021.

According to the government, rival gangs of drug traffickers, infiltrated or controlled by Mexican cartels, are waging an all-out war for control of overcrowded prisons, a war that authorities have so far been powerless to stem.

But Irene Salazar, a relative of an inmate, denounced the fact that the government remained "idle" in the face of prison violence.

"Why is the government not doing anything? He is negotiating...negotiating what? More money for him! And the starving poor," the 29-year-old told AFP.

For Daniel Ponton, dean of the School of Security and Defense of the Institute of Advanced National Studies (IAEN), the "relocation policy" of the most dangerous prisoners, exfiltrated from large prisons, is at the origin of this outbreak of violence in prisons hitherto "relatively calm", which could result in a "worrying generalization of the problem".

The escape of many prisoners also indicates that it is "a low security prison", and therefore "extremely vulnerable".

With a capacity of 1,200 places, the Bellavista prison currently accommodates 1,700 prisoners.

With AFP

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