(Guayaquil) The army has stepped up its presence around the Guayaquil penitentiary in southwest Ecuador, where no new incidents occurred on Sunday, in the aftermath of the massacre of 68 inmates in violent clashes between rival gangs , AFP noted.
In support of the police, also present in large numbers, military reinforcements were deployed around the prison, the largest in the country.
Dozens of people gathered at daybreak in front of the prison and the police morgue in search of information on their imprisoned relatives.
“We at least want to know, to calm the anguish of every father, every mother,” a woman told AFP outside the prison gates looking for news of her son.
The authorities indicated that they had set up a point of contact within the criminal police department to “help and accelerate the process of handing over the bodies to relatives of PPL (persons deprived of their liberty) who died during the violent events that took place at the penitentiary of Litoral (Guayas 1) ”.
On Sunday, police forensic director Colonel Marco Ortiz said 34 bodies had already been identified through fingerprints but, so far, 16 others have not been identified due to The “state” in which they were found.
An environmental activist is one of the victims. According to local NGOs, Victor Guayllas was arrested in 2019 for participating in protests against rising fuel prices that killed 11 people.
PHOTO DOLORES OCHOA, AP
Dozens of people gathered at daybreak in front of the prison and the police morgue in search of information on their imprisoned relatives.
“Savagery”
The vast prison complex in Guayaquil was the scene on Friday and Saturday of extremely violent clashes between rival gangs of inmates.
With bladed weapons, firearms and explosives, prisoners attacked, after sabotaging the electricity, the occupants of Block 2, killing 68 and wounding 25 according to the latest report.
The authorities denounced the “savagery” and “barbarism” of the attackers, which videos posted on social networks showed bitterly, with knives and sticks, on bodies piled up and charred in a courtyard.
Saturday evening, while new incidents were reported elsewhere in the penitentiary, nearly 900 police officers were deployed, including 500 inside the prison complex to regain “control” of the situation, according to the spokesperson for the presidency.
Guayaquil prison houses 8,500 inmates, with 60% overcrowding. It is divided into twelve neighborhoods, where members of at least seven criminal organizations, often rivals, are held separately with links to the Mexican cartels of Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación.
On September 28, 119 people were killed there in the same circumstances, in the largest massacre in Ecuador’s prison history and one of the worst in Latin America. Some detainees had been dismembered, beheaded, or burned.
President Guillermo Lasso then declared a “state of emergency” in the 65 Ecuadorian prisons, promising the deployment of significant military reinforcements. The Constitutional Court had, however, limited its duration and prohibited military personnel from entering prisons.
A “struggle for leadership” after a gang leader was released from prison last week was at the root of the new violence in Guayaquil penitentiary, police said.
Violence in Ecuadorian prisons has now claimed more than 320 lives since the start of the year.