More than 50 inmates have been confirmed dead following a series of riots at three prisons in Ecuador, authorities announced.
The uprisings were reported Tuesday morning after several criminal groups battling for control inside the penitentiary systems clashed, the Ecuador National Police said via a statement.
Images from the bloody carnage that were posted on social media showed several prisoners posing
with the severed heads of their rivals while several bodies of dead inmates were lying on top of each other. A video recorded by a detainee also captured the gruesome moment a prisoner repeatedly stabbed another inmate with a butcher's knife.
At least 38 prisoners died during a rebellion in the B wing of the Turi Social Rehabilitation Center in the southern city of Cuenca, according to Ecuador's Attorney General's Office.
'Criminal organizations carry out acts of simultaneous violence in several prisons in the country,' President Lenín Moreno said via a tweet. 'The [National Police] in coordination with the Interior Minister [Patricio Pazmiño] are acting to regain control of prisons in Guayaquil, Cuenca and Latacunga.'
Ecuadorean newspaper El Universo reported the military and police officers were sent into the prison to regain control, and that local fire departments were dispatched to assist security forces outside the prison.
A woman visiting an inmate at the Turi Social Rehabilitation Center said the riot started around 10am local time and that she saw an image of a dead prisoner on a mobile phone.
The woman said visitors were prohibited from leaving the visiting area, and that some of the prisoners were removed from the room over fears that they were going to be killed.
The visitors eventually were allowed to exit after emergency alarms sounded off.The prosecutor's office reported some of the inmates were injured at the Turi Social Rehabilitation Center, but it did not provide an official toll.
An Ecuadorean National Police source told El Universo that fights between four different gangs left at least 11 inmates dead and five others injured at the Guayas Male Deprivation of Liberty Center No. 8 in Guayaquil.
Police body camera video captured the moment about two dozen inmates were intercepted after they had walked out of the prison.
The rebellion also left two police officers with injuries, although the extent of their wounds were unknown.
Additionally, riots at Cotopaxi Rehabilitation Center in the north central city of Latacunga left eight inmates dead. An injury tally was not reported.
At least 50 prisoners have been killed in a battle between inmates equipped with firearms and grenades at a prison in Guayaquil, according to Ecuador’s national bureau of prisons (SNAI), which added that at least 42 others were wounded in the deadly riot.
Guayas state Governor Pablo Arosemena said at a news conference on Tuesday outside the Litoral prison that order had been restored. “The presence of the state and the law must be felt,” he said.
The regional police commander, General Fausto Buenano, said that toll included prisoners shot to death and killed by detonating hand grenades.
President Guillermo Lasso retweeted an announcement from the prison bureau, saying order “has been restored at the Littoral Penitentiary after the Tuesday incidents.”
The violence involved gunfire, knives and explosions and was caused by a dispute between the Los Lobos and Los Choneros prison gangs, officials said.
Television images showed inmates firing from the windows of the prison amid smoke and the detonation of firearms and explosives.
Ecuador’s prison system has become a battleground between prisoners linked to Mexican drug gangs – mainly the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels.
Guayaquil, Ecuador’s main port city, is a main hub for shipping South American cocaine to points north, especially the United States.
Last week, police confiscated two pistols, a revolver, some 500 rounds of ammunition, a hand grenade, several knives, two sticks of dynamite and homemade explosives at one of the Guayaquil prisons.
Two weeks ago, Guayaquil’s Prison Number 4 was attacked by drones, part of “a war between international cartels,” prison authorities said. There were no casualties in the attack.
Ecuador’s prison system has about 60 facilities designed for 29,000 inmates but is burdened by overcrowding and staffing shortages.
The country’s human rights ombudsman said there were 103 killings in prisons in 2020.
Twenty-seven inmates died in prison riots in two jails in July, in an incident that forced the government to declare a state of emergency.