In the most recent riot to rock Ecuador’s beleaguered criminal justice system, rival gangs engaged in combat inside a jail, the government reported on Sunday, killing at least five inmates.
The jail system’s management organization said that an additional 11 convicts were hurt during the latest round of unrest at the Guayas prison in the port city of Guayaquil overnight on Saturday into Sunday.
In the overcrowded Ecuadorian jail system, shockingly violent mass executions like beheadings frequently occur.
In this nation, which has grown to be a major player in the South American cocaine trade, the riots pit gangs with connections to drug traffickers against one another.
According to authorities, since 2021, drug-gang violence has killed at least 420 deaths.
The largest city, largest port, and economic center of Ecuador is Guayaquil, which is also where a gang turf war has been increasingly brutal in recent years. Guayaquil is located on the southern Pacific coast of the country.
Three million of Ecuador’s 18 million residents live in the city, which is strategically located as a launchpad for drug shipments to the United States and Europe.
Ecuador’s overcrowded prisons are now among the most violent in all of Latin America.
Since President Guillermo Lasso took office in May 2021, Ecuador, which is sandwiched between Colombia and Peru and is one of the world’s top producers of cocaine, has captured 455 tons of drugs.
