Ecuador: Military intervenes in Cotopaxi prison after the riot that left at least 15 dead

On Tuesday, October 4, dozens of military personnel and a tank of the Ecuadorian Army entered the Cotopaxi prison in the north of the country after detonations and smoke were registered inside the prison due to fears of new clashes between prisoners.

“Given incidents registered this morning in the CPLCotopaxi Nº1, the corresponding protocols were activated,” the National Service of Integral Attention to Prisoners of Liberty (SNAI) has specified in its official Twitter profile, without offering more details.

As reported by the newspaper ‘El Comercio’, police officers have evacuated the relatives of the detainees and journalists who were in the place after clashes inside the prison for the second consecutive day.

It comes after at least 15 people died on Monday and 20 people were injured in a brawl in the Cotopaxi prison, where a shootout occurred, contained by specialized groups of the National Police who entered the prison to restore order.

Among those killed was Leandro Norero, alias ‘El Patrón’, who was criminally prosecuted in Peru for drug trafficking from 2014 to 2020, when his lawyers showed false evidence of his alleged death by COVID-19, allowing him to be released from prison, reported ‘El Universal’.

In February and October 2021, two prison massacres took place in Cotopaxi prison. The first was recorded on February 23, 2021, with 79 deaths, while another 22 people died in different prisons in the region on July 21, 2021.

It is the fourth massacre recorded in 2022, totaling 92 dead. According to the newspaper, it would be the ninth in two years, with 391 inmates killed in violent incidents in Ecuadorian prisons.

With information from Gaceta

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