Thirteen inmates lost their lives on Monday in a brawl in a prison in Ecuador, which also left two injured, according to the public body in charge of prisons, the SNAI. Staff at Bellavista prison, in the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, about 80 km west of Quito, “reports 13 deaths among the detainees and 2 injured”, tweeted the SNAI. The SNAI added that they “regained controlfrom this prison,with the support of the police and the army”.
It is already in this establishment that 44 prisoners had perished in May during clashes between rival gangs. During this revolt, 220 prisoners escaped. Almost all have been taken over.
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Clashes, often extremely violent, are recurrent in Ecuadorian prisons. According to the government, rival gangs of drug traffickers, infiltrated or controlled by Mexican cartels, are waging an all-out war for control of overcrowded prisons, a war that authorities have so far been powerless to stem.
In 2021, Ecuador seized a record 210 tons of drugs, mostly cocaine. For 2022, seizures to date have reached around 70 tonnes. Bordered by Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest cocaine producers, Ecuador serves as a port of departure for illicit shipments, mainly to the United States and Europe.