Prison riot in Ecuador kills at least 17 people

In Ecuador, the second deadly prison brawl to hit the nation this week, at least 17 people have died.

The coastal city of Esmeraldas, close to the Colombian border, was the scene of the fighting on Thursday. According to reports, police discovered dead prisoners inside their cellblocks, and images of victims lying face-down on the ground with blood-stained torsos were shared on social media and verified by the AFP news agency. At least two of them were killed.

A local police chief reported that a prison riot in southern Ecuador earlier this week resulted in the death of 14 people and the injury of 14.

According to Police Chief William Calle, prisoners in the port town of Machala, south of Guayaquil, killed a guard and kidnapped officers on Monday, according to Ecuavisa.

Ecuador’s prison system has a long history of deadly violence.

In Guayaquil in 2021, the largest prison massacre in Ecuador, between rival rival gangs, led to the deaths of more than 100 prisoners and injured more than 50 others.

Since February 2021, there have been about 500 inmates killed, often in gruesome ways, with their bodies dismembered and burned in gang wars inside the country’s prisons.

After the release of narcotics boss Jose Adolfo Macias, also known as Fito, in 2013, gang members held a television presenter at gunpoint live on air while detonating bombs on the outside.

The military was given the order to take control of the prisons after President Daniel Noboa declared a “state of internal armed conflict.” Eight penitentiaries, including the Machala prison, were then returned to police control last month, though.

Colombia and Peru, the two biggest cocaine exporters in the world, have recently seen violence in Ecuador as rival gangs with ties to Colombia and Colombia fight for control.