QUITO, Ecuador (AP) – Sixty-two inmates have been killed in riots in prisons in three Ecuadorian cities as a result of fighting between rival gangs and an attempted escape, authorities said.
Prison director Edmundo Moncayo told a news conference that 800 police officers have been helping to regain control of the facility. Hundreds of tactical unit officers had been deployed since the clashes erupted Monday afternoon.
Moncayo said two groups were trying to gain “criminal leadership within detention centers” and that clashes were precipitated by the search for weapons carried out by police officers.
Photos and videos on social media show alleged beheaded and dismembered prisoners amid puddles of blood.
In recent years there have been deadly riots in prisons with relative frequency in Ecuador, whose prisons were designed for about 27,000 inmates, but contain about 38,000.
President Lenin Moreno has tweeted that he has ordered the Ministry of Defense “to exercise strict control over weapons, ammunition and explosives on the outer perimeters of prisons” as a result of this week’s riots.
Moncayo said 33 died in Cuenca prison, south of Ecuador, 21 in the city of Guayaquil, on the Pacific coast, and eight in the central city of Latacunga.
Moncayo said about 70% of the country’s prison population lives in centers where the unrest occurred.
Government Minister Patricio Pazmiño sent a tweet accusing “the concerted action of criminal organizations to generate violence in the country’s prisons,” but added: “We are managing actions to regain control.”