(Geneva) Two UN committees on Thursday called on Ecuador to guarantee security in the country’s prisons where more than 300 inmates have died since the start of 2020 in gang violence.
In a statement, the independent experts of the Committee against Torture and the Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture expressed their “dismay at the persistence of serious episodes of violence in Ecuador’s prisons”.
“Ecuador has an obligation to ensure security in its prisons, by providing adequate training to a sufficient number of prison officers and by developing strategies to reduce violence between prisoners,” said Claude Heller, who presides over the Committee against Torture.
On November 29, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso extended the state of emergency in the country’s prisons by one month. The presidential decree provides for the “mobilization” of the police and the army to “strengthen and restore order and control” in all the country’s penitentiaries.
The head of state declared a state of emergency in the country’s prisons on September 29 after the death of 119 prisoners in a prison in Gayaquil (southwest), the worst massacre in a prison in Latin America. Some detainees had been dismembered, beheaded, or burned.
On November 14, 62 other inmates had died in the same prison in new violence between gangs, linked to drug trafficking.
In 2016, the UN Committee against Torture, a body composed of 10 independent experts, had already expressed its concern at the frequent episodes of violence between detainees in Ecuadorian prisons, following its examination of the situation in the country.
“In addition to tackling overcrowding and self-management in detention centers, the state must provide the national torture prevention mechanism with the necessary resources to enable it to perform its functions properly,” said Suzanne. Jabbour, president of the Sub-committee for the prevention of torture.
This sub-committee, made up of 25 independent experts, plans to visit the site in the coming months. His last visit to the country dates back to 2014.
The 65 Ecuadorian prisons suffer from 30% overcrowding. Weapons of all kinds, drugs and cell phones circulate there in large numbers.
Located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s main producers of cocaine, and used as a transit zone for shipment to the United States and Europe, Ecuador faces a rise in drug trafficking-related crime. .