At least 15 inmates were killed and 14 injured Tuesday after a fight at Ecuador’s largest prison.
The Litoral Penitentiary in the coastal city of Guayaquil has been the scene of frequent riots and mass killings, including one in 2021 that left 119 inmates dead.
The National Service for Comprehensive Care for Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders, which supervises the prison system, said in a statement that the detainees were involved in a brawl in one of the prison pavilions.
Security forces were able to enter the prison and took control of the facility to “ensure security and prevent further incidents.”
The Attorney General’s Office said murder charges will be filed against nine inmates.
Security forces guard prisoners who were forced to lie down in a courtyard at the Litoral Penitentiary in Ecuador after Tuesday’s fight that left at least 15 inmates dead.
Police officers walk outside the Litoral Penitentiary, where at least 15 inmates were killed Tuesday after a fight in one of the prison buildings.
Footage taken inside the prison showed law enforcement officers standing over the body of a murdered prisoner lying on the ceiling. Inmates were seen shirtless, handcuffed and lying on the ground in a yard as law enforcement officers conducted searches.
Aerial video footage showed authorities removing bodies before taking them to the medical examiner’s office.
The sister of one of the victims told the Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo that the death toll could be much higher.
‘They threw grenades at them, they beheaded them, they cut them up. The police themselves, while they were there (outside the prison), showed me the videos that show (the bodies) at the top; They’re all lying there,’ he said.
‘That’s why we came here, because they already said that there are not 17 or anything, there are like 35, 40 dead. That is what they gave information within (the prison) itself.”
Ecuador’s Attorney General’s Office said murder charges will be filed against nine prisoners.
The mass killing is sure to roil Ecuador’s presidential race, where current president Daniel Noboa has made improving security, including inside detention centers, a top priority in his bid to seek re-election. next year.
Ecuador’s prisons have become some of the deadliest in Latin America, as overcrowding, corruption and weak state control have allowed gangs connected to drug traffickers in Colombia and Mexico to proliferate.
Many are heavily armed with weapons smuggled in from abroad and continue to organize criminal activities behind bars.
The Litoral Penitentiary currently houses about 10,000 inmates, or double its capacity.
Aerial video footage showed bodies outside the prison.
A woman talks on the phone while waiting for news of her loved one after at least 15 inmates were killed at the Litoral Penitentiary
A dozen outbreaks of violence in Ecuadorian prisons have left more than 400 dead since 2001.
Prison violence reflects a deterioration in the security situation throughout the Andean nation.
Ecuador recorded a record of 47 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, compared to a rate of six murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018.
In January, President Noboa declared a state of emergency and ordered the military to take control of prisons after gunmen broke into and opened fire at a television studio and bandits threatened random executions of civilians and security forces.
