Another prison riot in Ecuador leaves 5 inmates dead and 3 injured

At least five prisoners were killed and three injured in a riot in prison in the city of Quito, the capital of Ecuador, reported the National Service of Integral Attention to Adults Deprived of Liberty, which controls the prisons.

The riot occurred at the Pichincha N°1 Provisional Deprivation of Liberty Center for Men in Quito, known as El Inca prison, due to clashes between two organized crime gangs, the agency said in a statement.

“As a result of these clashes between inmates, five persons deprived of liberty died, and three were injured, who received attention from a team of paramedics from ECU 911,” it said.

He added that several Penitentiary Security and Surveillance Corps officers were beaten while trying to pacify the incidents.

“The National Government will not allow organized crime mafias to terrorize the country,” he said.

For his part, via Twitter, Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso highlighted the work of the forces of order that managed to regain control of the prison.

“We overcame organized crime. Thanks to the @PoliciaEcuador we have control of the Inca prison. Ecuador wants peace, and the state security forces are confronting the narco-criminal gangs to achieve it,” Lasso wrote on the social network.

The fights began on Monday afternoon, according to the alert received by the Integrated Security Service ECU 911, so the respective protocols were activated with the support of contingents of the Police and the Armed Forces.

The commander of the Quito Police, Victor Herrera, told reporters that specialized units intervened in the prison and regained control of the 14 existing pavilions after several hours, in addition to making searches of bladed weapons and narcotic substances.

According to official statistics, clashes between inmates of rival drug gangs have been constant in Ecuadorian prisons since February 2021 and have left around 400 prisoners killed.

According to the government, this is due to prison power disputes.