QUITO, Ecuador: At least three prisoners were killed and six injured after a prison revolt overnight in Ecuador’s port city of Guayaquil, the government said Thursday.
One of the country’s most feared gang leaders had escaped from the same prison in January.
Lyonel Calderon, the Deputy security minister, said the toll was provisional pending a “complete review of the entire penitentiary center,” located in a city which has turned into a dangerous hub for export of cocaine from neighboring countries.
He, however told media that the situation was completely under control.
At the start of 2024, the Guayaquil regional prison came under the spotlight after leader of one of the country’s most powerful gangs, Adolfo “Fito” Macias, escaped from the jail. He remains on the loose.
The escape was followed President Daniel Noboa declaring a state of emergency which has been extended until April. He also declared war on the gangs that have been a cause of unrest in the country.
The government has deployed troops to retake control of the country’s prisons, which had become the nerve center and battleground for gangs linked to Mexican and Colombian cartels.
More than 460 inmates have been killed in brutal gang wars behind bars during the past three years.
Wednesday’s unrest was the first since Noboa took office in November.
Ecuador, once considered a bastion of peace in Latin America, has been plunged into crisis by the rapid spread of transnational cartels that use its ports to transport drugs to the United States and Europe.
