New incident in Ecuador jail leaves 3 inmates dead

The National Service for Comprehensive Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI) of Ecuador reported this Tuesday that three inmates of a jail in the coastal city of Esmeraldas (northwest) died after a new incident in the prison system, which suffered frequent clashes between gangs during 2021.

The SNAI, in a message on Twitter, indicated that police officers “controlled incidents at the Esmeraldas Number 2 Deprivation of Liberty Center” and that, “as a result of the events, three inmates have died.”

In addition, without giving more details, he reported that with the Prosecutor’s Office “actions are coordinated to establish material and intellectual authors of this case.”

This event joins others that have occurred in recent months and that caused the violent deaths of more than 300 inmates, most of them in a jail in the port city of Guayaquil (southwest), known as “La Penitenciaría del Litoral”.

The SNAI announcement coincided with an information from the General Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency in which it indicated that the country’s president, Guillermo Lasso, met with collaborators this day to follow up on the actions of the so-called Ecuador Rescue Plan.

Said plan includes strategies to restructure the National Social Rehabilitation System, as well as actions to “reduce overcrowding, strengthen security” and the “well-being and protection of persons deprived of liberty.”

It also provides for the completion of a comprehensive prison census in 2022 in the 36 prisons in the country.

The Ecuadorian prison system has been subjected to several states of exception to try to control the frequent brawls between gangs of inmates who, according to the authorities, have tried to take control of the prisons.

On December 28 and after three months, Ecuador put an end to the last state of exception decreed in the prisons, with the aim of avoiding new massacres such as the one that occurred at the end of September in the Guayaquil Penitentiary, which left 116 inmates dead and 80 injured, as reported by the authorities at the time.

In Ecuador, according to figures from human rights groups, more than 300 inmates have died in 2021 due to the confrontation between gangs of inmates who dispute control of prisons and who, according to the Government, maintain alleged ties to drug trafficking.