Ecuador: Several killed in prison fighting
Several prisoners have been killed again in a prison in Ecuador.
A few months earlier, there had been fights between rival gangs in the same prison, resulting in numerous deaths.
At least 13 prisoners have been killed in fighting at a prison in Ecuador. Two other inmates were injured, the prison authority SNAI said on Twitter. The agency said it had regained control of the detention center with “police and army support”.
Prisons chronically overcrowded
The violence took place at the Bellavista prison in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas province, the same prison where 44 inmates were killed in May when rival gangs fought.
In the South American country’s chronically overcrowded prisons, prisoner mutinies and fights between rival drug gangs are frequent. Over 200 people lost their lives last year. The federal police and armed forces then took control of the country’s prisons.
Located between the major drug producers Colombia and Peru, Ecuador is an important hub for drug smuggling to the US and Europe.
