Ecuador, the tiny country that wants to be a retiree’s paradise, but where deadly prison riots are commonplace

Ecuador is repeatedly named one of the most popular destinations for retirees from around the world.

This is almost a bad joke, or misinformation, to use a more modern word, given the rampant violence in local prisons, where many inmates rot for years without conviction due to a justice system that is a disgrace even by Latin American standards.

And inhumane overcrowding is the standard in most prisons.

According to Ecuador’s Service for the Integral Care of Adult and Juvenile Offenders Deprived of Liberty (SNAI), five inmates were killed, 18 injured and five police officers wounded today in clashes at a prison in Guayaquil, the capital of the coastal province of Guayas.

The Ecuadorian Interior Ministry said what it always says: it maintains control of the so-called Penitenciaría del Litoral and confirmed that the unified command post remains active along with the Ecuadorian police and armed forces.

The violence at the Guayaquil prison on Oct. 5 occurred just 24 hours after incidents at the rehabilitation center in Cotopaxi province (Central Highlands) on Oct. 3 and 4 in which 16 inmates were killed and 43 injured.

Ecuador has faced a prison crisis since 2020 that has already claimed the lives of nearly 400 inmates.

Currently, the country’s 36 prisons have a capacity of 30,169 inmates, but in May of this year, the number was 36,599.

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso said in an interview with a local television station this week that “there is a solution” to the prison crisis, but that the government’s strategy is “restrained.”

More: Ecuador news in English, every day from The Rio Times.